Science of Peer Support

What does science say about the value of peer support?

Much evidence supports that peer support is a critical and effective strategy for ongoing health care and sustained behavior change for people with chronic disease/risks and other conditions, and its benefits can be extened to community, organizational and societal levels.

Overall, studies have found that social support, a broader definition of peer support, decreases morbidity and mortality rates,  reduces health care service use, increases life expectancy, self-efficacy, knowledge of a disease or conditions and self-reported health status and better self-care skills, including improved medication adherence.  Additionally, providers of social support report less depression, heightened self-esteem and self-efficacy, and improved quality of life.  

 To learn more about evidence for peer support, choose Global Systematic Review, Other Review Articles, or Other Featured Reports.

Evidence: Global Systematic Review for Complex Health Behavior

NEW  Below please find highlights of articles that found appreciable evidence for peer support from a systematic review being conducted through the Peers for Progress Program Development Center (PDC). Click here for a complete summary of these articles and the authors of this review. Also, click here for their citations only.

NEW To see the abstract of this review to be presented at the International Congress of Behavioral Medicine in Washington, D.C., in August, 2010, click here.

Rationale for Evidence Selection

Extant reviews of peer and social support interventions are disease- and approach-specific. Because there is limited evidence within any one disease, such reviews do not provide strong evidence for peer support. In contrast, a more general review of peer support across a range of health behaviors can lead to more solid conclusions about its effectiveness. Therefore, this systematic review focuses on research on peer support for complex health behavior across a variety of health problems.

Article Highlights

Asthma

  • Peer support as asthma coaches has proved to be effective in reaching low-income parents of African American children hospitalized for asthma. Here, peer support engaged almost 90% of the target population and resulted in a 50% reduction in the rehospitalization rate among the children. (Fisher et al, 2009) Link to Abstract.
  • Peer support as community health workers reach ethnically and geographically disparate population of economically disadvantaged school-aged children. Here, peer support helped significantly improve both asthma-related care processes and clinical outcomes, including emergency department visits, hospitalizations, frequent daytime and nighttime symptoms, and missed school days. (Fox et al, 2007) Link to Abstract.

Blood Pressure

  • Peer support as indigenous community health workers trained in blood pressure management reach high risk, African American urban populations. Here, peer support helped to significantly decrease mean systolic and diastolic pressures and increase the percentage of individuals with controlled high blood pressure.   (Levine et al, 2003) Link to Abstract.

Breast Feeding

  • Peer support as trained community workers providing counseling and hands-on support on breastfeeding techniques makes a significant impact on alleviating many problems. Here, peer support in Bangladesh resulted in an over 80% reduction in the rate of newborns having feeding difficulties (Mannan et al, 2008) Link to Abstract. 

Cancer

  • One-on-one peer support resulted in significantly higher self-efficacy than the controls and significantly less depression in older men treated by radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. (Weber et al, 2007) Link to Abstract.

Cardiovascular Disease

  • Peer support as Promotoras (community health workers) engage Latino families in promoting heart-healthy behaviors integrated with a medical model of patient. Here, peer support effectively helped to improve heart-healthy behaviors, promote community referrals, and enhance information sharing. (Balcazar et al, 2005) Link to Abstract. 

Depression (Post-Partum)

  • Peer support as a telephone-based, mother-to-mother strategy has proved to be effective in reaching new mothers at high risk for postpartum depression. Here, peer support created a 70% reduction in the rate of depressive symptomatology among the target population. (Dennis, 2003) Link to Abstract.
  • Peer support as trained parent-to-parent peers helps mothers deal with the stress of very preterm birth. Here, peer support helped the target population significantly decrease anxiety and depression and increase perceived social support. (Preyde and Ardal, 2003) Link to Abstract

Smoking Cessation

  • Peer support using community health workers to enhance smoking self-efficacy, social support, and spiritual well-being reaching African American women living in public housing.  Here, the rate of a 6-month smoking abstinence is almost 4 times higher in the intervention group than the control group. (Andrews et al, 2004) Link to Abstract.

Type 2 Diabetes

  • Peer support using community health workers improves diabetes care and health measures, including health status, health care utilization, diet and physical activity, and medication adherence, among Hispanics with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Here, compared with those with usual clinical practice, the CHW intervention group also had 2.9 times greater odds of decreasing BMI.  (Babamoto et al, 2009) Link to Abstract.
  • Peer support as paraprofessionals deliver a brief, regular telephone intervention positively effecting type 2 diabetes patients. Here, peer support helped the target population to increase d frequency of exercise and feet inspection, improve diet, reduce diabetes medical symptoms, and lower depressive symptoms. (Sacco et al, 2009) Link to Abstract.

To learn more about different peer support models, please see What is peer support.

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Evidence: Other Review Articles

  • Click here to find a sample of review articles relevant to peer support since 2000.
  • Click here for a most recent list of full citations for all the relevant review articles since 2000.

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Other Featured Reports

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Peers for Progress is a program of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation and supported by the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.