Ribanszki, Robert;
S Taylor, Katie;
Scheutzow, Johanna;
Saez Fonseca, Jose Andres;
Ponzo, Sonia;
(2022)
Welfare systems and mental health in OECD and EEA countries: a scoping review.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
, 9
(1)
, Article 431. 10.1057/s41599-022-01391-2.
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Abstract
The link between socioeconomic position and mental health is well established. On the macro level, one important determinant of this relationship is the welfare state. As such, welfare systems play an important role in mitigating the adverse effects of poor socioeconomic conditions and improving the mental health of the population. Despite their significance, welfare systems and their impact on mental health have rarely been examined. In this scoping review, we set out to synthesise the available evidence on this subject and offer preliminary evidence on how different welfare systems shape the mental health of societies. Eight databases were searched for articles published between January 2000 and March 2022 that focused on mental health and welfare regimes or welfare expenditure and compared OECD and EEA countries. The final review included 30 studies. Findings were summarised using narrative synthesis. Welfare systems were shown to have a significant relationship with the mental health of the population, with Social Democratic regimes and countries with more generous social expenditures demonstrating superior outcomes on most measures. It is suggested that a key factor behind these positive outcomes is the way in which these countries deal with social inequality. However, the overall composition of the included articles was highly heterogeneous and scattered across several domains. Moreover, important confounding factors such as differences in GPD across countries were often not taken into account. Therefore, the quality of the current evidence is considered weak. Further, questions are raised regarding the specific mental health benefits and drawbacks of welfare generosity for different populations and the specific pathways through which these systems may improve mental health in society. The review highlights the need for a more robust evidence base in this area and emphasises the importance of addressing the macro-level determinants of mental health.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Welfare systems and mental health in OECD and EEA countries: a scoping review |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1057/s41599-022-01391-2 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01391-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10161860 |
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