ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
This article is part of the Research TopicSocial Prescribing: Advancing Evidence-Based Public Health PoliciesView all 4 articles
Influence of General Practitioners' Perceptions on Social Prescription of Arts, Nature and Physical Activity for Psychosocial Health and Well-being: A Structural Equation Model Approach
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Fourth Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Yiwu, China
- 2Shandong Xiehe University, Jinan, China
- 3Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- 4Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Background: GPs are pivotal in promoting holistic health and well-being among patients, with the emerging concept of social prescription gaining attention. Understanding GPs' knowledge, attitudes, and perceived influence regarding social prescription is crucial for practical integration into healthcare practice. Therefore, the current study addresses this research gap by comprehensively understanding the influence of general practitioners' perceptions (knowledge, attitudes, and perceived effectiveness) on arts, nature, physical activity, and social prescription for psychosocial health and well-being. Methods: This research was exploratory, and a cross-sectional survey design was adopted to collect data at a single point in time from a sample of general practitioners in China. The primary data were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire survey. The data analysis for this inquiry used the Smart-PLS 3.2.9 software package. Results: A total of 701 general practitioners were recruited. The proposed hypotheses of the study are as follows: H1 (t=10.418, p= 0.00); H2 (t= 2.772, p= 0.000); H3 (t= 0.172, p= 0.00); H4 (t=79.05, p= 0.000); H5 (t= 1.272, p= 0.000); H6 (t=0.655, p= 0.000); H7 (t=0. 540, p= 0.000) H8 (t= 0.767, p= 0.000), H9 (t= 0.201, p= 0.000), H10 (t= 1.409, p= 0.000), and H11 (t=0.395, p= 0.000) show significant relationships. Conclusion: People's thoughts and behaviors related to social prescriptions from general practitioners involve a broad spectrum of factors, including deeming doctors more qualified and, therefore, more influential, with some beyond the doctor's control. Among the key factors that can make or mar the success of social prescriptions, arts, nature, and physical activities strategies meant to boost health and well-being is the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of GPs that they are the contributing agents.
Keywords: Social prescription, General practitioner, Perception, Arts, nature, physical activity
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Menhas and Younas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rashid Menhas, menhas.r@yahoo.com
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