WEMWBS Mental Wellbeing: Evaluation Deep-Dive

As a Centre, we promote the use of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales (WEMWBS) as a global measure of mental wellbeing.

Since their development in 2007, the scales have proved valuable to wellbeing research and provide a critical starting point for building the evidence base on mental wellbeing.

The measure is now included in large-scale population surveys across three British countries, providing benchmarks and growing opportunities to inform policy at the local and national levels.

We follow the ONS recommendation to use WEMWBS in surveys when wellbeing is the variable of interest and:

• The detail required is greater than that provided by the harmonised Personal Wellbeing (ONS4) measure.
• When a single figure wellbeing score output is desired. 

Rapid review

Between September 2021 and February 2022, we worked with Kohlrabi Consulting Ltd. to conduct a rapid review of the evaluation literature that uses the WEMWBS scales. The rapid review sought to answer the following questions: 

1. What evaluation research has been carried out to assess the effectiveness of programmes and pilots on mental wellbeing?
2. What is the strength of evidence of the evaluation research?
3. What are the key findings from the evaluation research?

Find the report and briefing in the ‘In this project’ section below.

Want to collaborate with us?

If you’re funding interventions or conducting evaluations on mental wellbeing get in touch at evaluation@whatworkswellbeing.org