Older adults and social support in rural Canada: A rapid mixed methods systematic review to inform social prescribing

Social support may assist people's health as they age but less is known about how this relationship may differ for older adults living in rural communities. Knowledge of this information can inform the implementation of social prescribing, a care model aiming to address people's unmet non-medical social needs.

This was a systematic rapid mixed-methods review following guidelines. We searched 10 electronic sources (all languages from 2000 and later) for peer-reviewed studies; our last search was on May 5, 2025. We followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) mixed-methods approach and used a convergent integrated method to create qualitative findings from quantitative studies and merged them with data from qualitative studies.

We included 12 studies (14 publications) with six quantitative studies, five qualitative studies, and one mixed methods study. Data were from Canada-wide surveys, or the provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. There were some differences in findings between older adults from rural and urban settings for social support and satisfaction. Older people in rural settings may have less access to "formal" support and may rely more on family or friends, but this "patchwork" of support in rural communities may be less sustainable.

Social support is an important part of aging, but there may be some unique differences for people living in rural Canadian communities. Although the support provided in rural settings may offer some advantages, it may also be precarious in the long term and innovations to support aging in place (like social prescribing) are long overdue.

PROSPERO 2024 CRD42024591884.