Intersectoral actions in decreasing social inequities faced by children and adolescents.
Larissa Barros de Souza, Francisca Bruna Arruda Aragão, José Henrique da Silva Cunha and 1 others
PMID 34190935WHAT IT FOUND
Children and adolescents in vulnerable settings were reported to have gains in school participation, nutrition, mental health access and community support when health, education and social services worked together.
Most reports were qualitative, so this is not evidence these programs work.
Key findings
01Reported outcomes included improved access to health services, nutrition indicators, mental health consultations, healthy lifestyle information and quality of life.
02Reported educational outcomes included increased school enrollment, healthier recreational activities, vocational aspirations, participation and school infrastructure.
03All included studies involved the health sector, and 23 also involved education.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Most included studies were qualitative or mixed, so they do not test whether an action caused improvement. The review searched only databases from 2005 to 2019 in English, Portuguese or Spanish and did not search gray literature or reference lists. It combined many different programs, countries and sectors, so results cannot be applied to one specific service. The included studies were not randomised; only two used non-randomised quantitative methods. The authors combined different study designs in a descriptive analysis, which can bias the summary.
Declared interests
The article gives a funding statement by CAPES, Brazil, Finance Code 001, Grant # 88882.327958/2019-01. No other conflict statement is shown.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these reported improvements as proof that intersectoral programs work. The programs involved several sectors at once, and most reports were qualitative without controlled comparisons, so the contribution of any single sector cannot be separated.