The effectiveness of place-based interventions in improving development, health and wellbeing outcomes in children aged 0–6 years living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in high-income countries – A systematic review

Abstract

• First systematic review examining the effectiveness of place based interventions (PBI). • Overall, there is insufficient evidence for PBI in the early childhood population. • Individual papers found benefits in dental care, child development, parenting behaviours. • PBIs are heterogenous making comparison of the effectiveness of PBIs challenging. • Further evaluation of key PBI components is required. Place-based interventions (PBI) are a model of care introduced to support children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, where their access to services may be limited despite their increased support needs . We conducted a systematic review of the effectiveness of PBI in improving development, health, and well-being outcomes in children aged 0–6 years living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Electronic databases (Medline, PsycInfo, EmCare, EmBase, Cochrane) (January 1996-July 2019), bibliographies and grey literature were searched. The 13 included studies had a total of 25,195 children. Individual studies demonstrated improvements in dental health, parenting, and child behaviour. Some studies reported improvement in child development outcomes for those children attending PBI, whilst others found no significant difference. There was no significant impact of PBI on other child health and behaviour outcomes. There was moderate to high levels of bias in the majority of papers. Meta-analysis was not undertaken due to study heterogeneity. There is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of PBI in improving development, health, and well-being outcomes in children. Further rigorous evaluation of PBI is required with clear implementation evaluation describing the key components of the PBI.