Public Health England (PHE) is due to carry out an evidence-based review into the health implications associated with gambling-related harm, which will inform future prevention and treatment efforts.
The health body has been asked to “inform and support action on gambling-related harm as part of the follow up to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport-led review of gaming machines and social responsibility” in its remit letter for 2018 to 2019.
In the remit letter, DCMS confirmed that “PHE will conduct an evidence review of the health aspects of gambling-related harm to inform action on prevention and treatment.”
The review, which is expected to be published in spring 2020, will take a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) has commissioned a research unit at Sheffield University to review the effectiveness of national and international policies and interventions to reduce gambling-related harms.
PHE, meanwhile, will carry out a broader evidence review on the prevalence of gambling and associated health harms and their social and economic burden.
The review will primarily consider the ‘prevalence, determinants and harms associated with gambling, and the social and economic burden of gambling-related harms’ which is hoped will ‘support policy-making and practice aimed at preventing and addressing problem and dependent gambling, and gambling-related harms.’
Source:SBCnews