Executive summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Background and aims
Life checks - emotional and physical health check ups followed by feedback,
advice and support - have been proposed by the English Department of Health
(DH) as a personalised service providing support and advice at key stages
throughout the lifespan to help people to maintain and improve their health. A set
of transitional stages has been identified as the most appropriate for life checks to
take place, and, for young people, the proposed key stage for a life check is the
transition between primary and secondary school at the ages 11 to 12 years. This
report is the result of a scoping review commissioned by the DH. The review
aimed to identify the size and scope of the available research evidence relevant to
the life check proposal for young people. Of particular interest was evidence
about the effectiveness of life checks within and outside school settings, evidence
about the acceptability of life checks to young people, and evidence about
optimising uptake of the life check.
Methods
We identified three bodies of literature in which we might find relevant evidence:
health promotion and public health; resilience and wellbeing; and youth
transitions. When searching, we also considered the concepts of ‘health literacy’
and ‘health trainers’. We searched for relevant studies published in the last 10
years within a range of bibliographic databases, specialist registers and websites
across the health and social sciences. Eligible studies were those that (a) focused
on the provision of a health and/or emotional wellbeing check-up followed by
feedback, advice, support, referral and/or the development of personal health
plans; and (b) focused on young people aged 9 to 14 years. Relevant studies
were coded using a standardised strategy on the basis of information presented in
abstracts. This strategy covered study design, country, health focus, study
population, intervention setting, intervention provider, and type of intervention.
Results
We identified a total of 70 relevant studies from 13 different countries around the
world. Just under half the total number of studies identified (N=34) were
evaluations of the impact of interventions on health and other outcomes,
suggesting a small but significant body of literature which could potentially provide
evidence on the likely effects of the life-check proposal. The body of evidence
was spread evenly according to effectiveness in school settings and effectiveness
outside school settings. We identified a small number of surveys (N=12) which
offered either evidence about the acceptability of the life check to young people or
how to optimise uptake of the life check. This smaller amount of evidence on
acceptability and uptake was supplemented by a number of outcome evaluations
which had also studied acceptability and uptake issues. We also found several
studies which had developed and/or evaluated screening tools for young people
(N=15). These may have relevance for the assessment stage of the proposed life
check. The remainder of the 70 studies were reviews which looked as though they
might offer relevant information (N=9). While five of these reviews appeared to be
A scoping review of the evidence relevant to life checks for young people aged 9 to 14 years