A systematic review of educational programs and consumer protection measures for gambling : an extension of previous reviews

• Introduction: Besides supply reduction, preventive interventions to reduce harm from gambling include interventions for the reduction of demand and to limit negative consequences. Several interventions are available for gamblers, e.g. limit-setting. Reviews have been published examining the evidence for specific measures as well as evaluating the effect of different measures at an overall level. Only a few of these have used a systematic approach for their literature review. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is twofold. First, to assess the certainty of evidence of different preventive measures in the field of educational programs and consumer protection measures, including both land-based and online gambling. The second is to present shortcomings in eligible studies to highlight what type of information is needed in future studies.Method: This systematic review included measures administered in both real-life settings and online. Twenty-eight studies fulfilled our inclusion criteria and had low or moderate risk of bias.Results: The results showed that only two measures (long term educational programs and personalized feed-back) had an impact on gambling behavior. Follow-up period was short, and measures did not include gambling as a problem. The certainty in most outcomes, according to GRADE, was very low. Several shortcomings were found in the studies.Discussion: We concluded that the support for preventive measures is low and that a consensus statement regarding execution and methods to collect and analyze data for preventive gambling research is needed. Our review can serve as a starting point for future responsible gambling reviews since it evaluated certainty of evidence.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

prevention

gambling

systematic review

intervention

harm reduction

Public Health Sciences

folkhälsovetenskap

psykologi

Psychology

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