School-based peer education interventions to improve health: a global systematic review of effectiveness

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Number of included papers by health area

Health area	Number of papers (% of total included)	Total participant number	Overall effectiveness rating^a	Overall quality appraisal rating^b
Sex education/HIV prevention	23 (31.5%)	51,354	Suggests ineffectiveness	Medium
Healthy lifestyles (exercise, nutrition, oral health, health information)	17 (23.3%)	21,172	Mixed effectiveness	High
Alcohol, smoking, substance use	16 (21.9%)	32,488	Mixed effectiveness	Medium
Mental health (incl. suicide prevention)	6 (8.2%)	6712	Suggests effectiveness	Medium
Asthma	5 6.8%)	2136	Suggests effectiveness	Medium
Disease prevention (including HIV, cervical cancer and hepatitis)	4 (5.4%)	8467	Suggests effectiveness	Medium
Bullying	2 (2.7%)	1607	Mixed effectiveness	High

^aThe proportion of ‘effective’ studies was calculated for each health area and then assigned an overall effectiveness rating based on our scoring thresholds in Table 1 (e.g. if ≥ 60% studies in a health area demonstrated effectiveness this health area was given an overall rating of effective)
^bThe average quality rating was calculated across all papers in health area, 0–1 indicating poor quality, 2–3 indicating average quality and 4–5 indicating high quality

ISSN: 1471-2458