4. Results
All 15 studies coded ‘instrument design’ developed and/or evaluated screening or
health-assessment tools for children and young people. These screening tools are
discussed in more detail in section 4.3.5. Of the 12 surveys, 10 presented children
and young people’s views and experiences of interventions similar to the
proposed life check. These are likely to provide the most appropriate evidence
regarding the acceptability of life checks to young people.
Nine studies were reviews, of which five were systematic reviews and four were
non-systematic reviews. The four non-systematic reviews do not offer reliable
evidence of effectiveness due to the range of biases to which they are subjected.
However, they can provide access to studies which may not have been identified
in systematic searches, and can provide useful background information. Well-
conducted systematic reviews of effectiveness offer the most reliable level of
evidence in terms of impact, provided they address the research question closely.
However, it is unusual to find ‘off the peg’ systematic reviews for a new policy
intervention, such as a life check. None of the reviews exactly matched the topic,
intervention and population focus of this scoping review. The systematic reviews
are discussed in more detail in section 4.3.
4.2.2 Country of origin
The studies were conducted across a wide range of countries. One study was
European wide. Ten were conducted in the UK. Of the UK studies, three were
surveys (Ercan et al., 2006; Hill and Morton, 2003; Holroyd and Hall, 1997), three
were systematic reviews (Fothergill et al., 2003; Walker and Townsend, 1998;
1999) and four were outcome evaluations (Boekeloo et al., 2004; Hill and
Watkins, 2003; Shucksmith et al., 2003; Walker et al., 2000; Walker et al.,
2002).The USA accounted for 34 studies, of which 20 were outcome evaluations.
France and Denmark provided three studies and two each were conducted in the
Netherlands and Norway. Finally, one each was conducted in Australia, Canada,
Finland, India, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam. For nine studies, this information was
not available.
4.2.3 Population
Only three of the studies focused explicitly on young people from disadvantaged
or vulnerable groups. These included children looked after by an English city
council (Hill and Watkins, 2003), young people in the French judicial system
(North, 2003), and children from low income families on Medicaid in the USA
(Selby et al., 1995). Seven studies focused on other specific groups of young
people. Three studies focused on young people living in rural areas, and four
studies on athletes.
Fifty-nine studies focused on young people in general. However, 20 of these
studies appeared to offer separate analyses for different population sub-groups
related to age, gender and measures of social and economic status.
4.2.4 Types of interventions
In this section, we describe the features of the interventions relevant to the life-
check proposal evaluated by the 34 outcome evaluations.
A scoping review of the evidence relevant to life checks for young people aged 9 to 14 years
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