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 Recent Research on Peer Support, Global Systematic Review, or Featured Reports

Evidence: Recent Research on Peer Support

To view sample peer support review papers published during 2000-2008 (citation list), click here

To view sample peer support papers identified by Peers for Progress during 2011, click here. (Last updated on October 26, 2011)

Sample articles published during Q4, 2011 (Last updated on December 13, 2011)

• Community Health Workers: A Public Health Force for Change in the United States
  Balcazar et al discuss the emerging role of community health workers (CHWs) to become collaborative leaders in the new comprehensive care model. They recommend that CHWs be integrated into the medical home as part of the community health team and suggest that an improved evaluation framework could assist in assessing community wellbeing. (Am J Public Health, Dec 2011) Full abstract

• Mobile Peer Support in Diabetes
  Chomutare et al discuss the prospects for mobile technology and social media in diabetes management and support, with an emphasis on design aspects such as health information acquisition. Their findings suggest that acquiring health information to model patient health status is a promising approach to providing mobile peer support.(Stud Health Technol Inform, 2011) Full abstract

• Forms and Functions of Peer Support for People Living with HIV
  Peterson et al examine the function of peer support for patients with HIV across contexts to provide a succinct description of this topic. Results indicate that peer support is an important form of psychosocial support by assisting patients with coping skills. This suggests that programs working with this population should work to increase effective communication and support seeking behaviors, provide peer support opportunities, and assess the accessibility of peer support. (J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care, Nov, 2011) Full abstract

• Lessons Learned from a Train-the-Trainer Program for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control
  Tobias et al share the results of a mixed methods evaluation of the Train-the-Trainer Program, a national tool for HIV peer education indicating that faculty support in design and implementation, financial support, the teach-back/feedback model, and modeling of facilitation techniques by staff members were associated with better local trainings. One key factor that could be improved in future replications of the program includes incorporation of the trainers into the training team. (AIDS Patient Care STDS, Nov 2011) Full abstract

• Promoting Physical Activities among Chinese Older Adults
  Thomas et al conducted a clustered randomized trial using a two by two factorial design to test impact of pedometry and peer support (a.k.a. buddy) on older Chinese adults. While all three groups receiving interventions  (pedometry and/or peer support) showed improvements in physical activity and fitness indicators, the groups with buddies also had additional improvements in mean aerobic fitness, reduced body fat, and the get-up-and-go test. (Med Sci Sports Exercise, Dec 2011) Full abstract

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Evidence: Global Systematic Review for Complex Health Behavior 

 A systematic review for peer support being conducted through the Peers for Progress Development Center (PDC) has found appreciable evidence for peer supportthat found appreciable evidence. Click here for a complete summary of these articles and the authors of this review. Also, click here for citation only.

To see the abstract of this review that was presented at the 2010 International Congress of Behavioral Medicine, click here.

Highlights

•  01/01/2000 - 12/31/2009 : “peer support,” “coach,” “promotora” etc.

• 47 separate studies met criteria of:

  • Provided by nonprofessional

  • Support for multiple health behaviors over time (i.e., not isolated or single behaviors)

  • Not peer implementation of class

• Preliminary outcomes:

  • Diseases/Health problems: asthma, blood pressure, breast feeding, cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression (post-partum), diabetes, & smoking cessation

  • Significant within- or between-group changes: 83% of all 47(39/47)

  • 81% among the subset of 37 (30/37) papers reporting randomized trials

     

Featured Reports

• Meeting participants reviewed peer support as an approach for diabetes self-management and made suggestions for best practices.  View    the full report here: World Health Organization (2007). Peer Support Programs in Diabetes.
• This report introduces the theoretical and empirical work on the benefits of peer support for chronic disease self-management and discusses seven models that have been used and tested by health systems and clinics.  View the full report here:  Heisler, M. (2006) Building Peer Support Programs to Manage Chronic Disease: Seven Models for Success. California Health Care Foundation.