Explaining health-related inequalities with a social capital model

ABSTRACTNo study based on the Resource Generator has explored the association between individual social capital and health-related quality of life among older adults. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the adapted Resource Generator-China, and examine the association between individual social capital measured by the Resource Generator-China and health-related quality of life of older rural-dwelling Chinese people. A field survey including 975 rural-dwelling people aged between 60 and 75 years was conducted in three counties of the Shandong Province of China in 2013. Quality of life was measured by the Chinese version of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36): scores of Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary. Cumulative scale analyses were performed to analyse the homogeneity and reliability of the Resource Generator-China. We constructed generalised linear models by gender to examine the associations of social capital with health-related quality of life. Our findings suggest that the adapted instrument for older rural-dwelling Chinese people can be a reliable and valid measure of access to individual social capital. There were positive associations between individual social capital (total scores and sub-scale scores) and health-related quality of life. Individual social capital had a stronger association with mental health among women than men. Future studies should be improved through a longitudinal design with a larger and randomised sample covering large geographical rural areas in China.

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1012 Health related quality of life of mothers of children with cancer: The role of social support and social capital

European Journal of Cancer ◽

10.1016/s0959-8049(16)30438-5 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. S149

Author(s):

C. Nicolaou ◽

C. Kouta ◽

E. Papathanasoglou ◽

N. Middleton

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Social Support ◽

Social Capital ◽

Health Related Quality ◽

Children With Cancer ◽

Related Quality ◽

Health Related

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Association between Personal Social Capital and Loneliness among Widowed Older People

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17165799 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (16) ◽

pp. 5799 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dongdong Jiang ◽

Yitan Hou ◽

Jinwei Hao ◽

Jiayi Zhou ◽

Junfeng Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Capital ◽

Older People ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Short Form ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Bridging Social Capital ◽

Related Quality ◽

Health Related

To explore the association between the personal social capital and loneliness among the widowed older adults in China. Data from 1497 widowed older adults were extracted from China’s Health-Related Quality of Life Survey for Older Adults 2018. The Chinese version of the Personal Social Capital Scale (PSCS-16) was used to evaluate the participants’ status of bonding and bridging social capital (BOC and BRC). Loneliness was assessed by the short-form UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8). Multiple linear regression models were established to examine the relationship between social capital and loneliness. The BOC and BRC of rural widowed older people were significantly lower than those of widowed older people in urban areas, while loneliness of rural widowed older people was higher than that of widowed older people in urban areas. The result of the final model showed that loneliness of rural participants was significantly associated with both BOC (B = 0.141, p = 0.001) and BRC (B = −0.116, p = 0.003). The loneliness of the urban widowed sample had no association with both BOC and BRC (p > 0.05). These findings suggested that more social support and compassionate care should be provided to enrich the personal social capital and thus to reduce loneliness of widowed older adults, especially those in rural areas.

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Does it really matter where you live? A panel data multilevel analysis of Swedish municipality-level social capital on individual health-related quality of life

Health Economics Policy and Law ◽

10.1017/s174413310600301x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 209-235 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

M. Kamrul Islam ◽

Juan Merlo ◽

Ichiro Kawachi ◽

Martin Lindström ◽

Kristina Burström ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Social Capital ◽

Health Status ◽

Panel Data ◽

Health State ◽

Health Related Quality ◽

Individual Health ◽

Related Quality ◽

Health Related

We test whether individual health status is related to area-level social capital measured by rates of voting participation in municipal political elections, controlling for personal characteristics, where health status is measured by mapping responses to interview survey questions into the generic health-related quality of life measure (HRQoL) the EQ-5D in order to derive the health state scores. The analysis is based on unbalanced panel data from Statistic Sweden's Survey of Living Conditions (the ULF survey) and a 3-level multilevel regression analysis, where level 1 consists of a total of 31,585 observations for 24,419 individuals at level 2 nested within 275 Swedish municipalities at level 3. We find that the health state scores increase significantly with municipality election rates. This result is robust to a number of measurement and specification issues explored in a sensitivity analysis. However, almost all variation in health status exists across individuals (more than 98%), which demonstrates that even if social capital (and other contextual variables) may be significant it is of less importance, at least at the municipality level in Sweden.

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Relationship between social capital indicators and lifestyle in Brazilian adults

Cadernos de Saúde Pública ◽

10.1590/0102-311x00132614 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 31 (8) ◽

pp. 1636-1647 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Mathias Roberto Loch ◽

Regina Kazue Tanno de Souza ◽

Arthur Eumann Mesas ◽

David Martinez-Gómez ◽

Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Fruits And Vegetables ◽

Leisure Time Physical Activity ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Community Safety ◽

Community Members ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Community Activities ◽

Health Related ◽

The Relationship

The present study examined the relationship between indicators of social capital and health-related behaviors. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 1,062 participants representative of the population aged 40 years or older from a city in Southern Brazil. The following indicators of social capital were examined: number of friends, number of people they could borrow money from when in need; extent of trust in community members; number of times members of the community help each other; community safety; and extent of membership in community activities. Also, an overall score of social capital including all indicators was calculated. A poor social capital was associated with insufficient leisure-time physical activity (OR = 1.70; 95%CI: 1.07-2.70), low consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR = 1.53; 95%CI: 1.05-2.24), and smoking (OR = 1.97; 95%CI: 1.21-3.21). No clear association was found between capital social and binge drinking. A score of social capital showed an inverse relationship with the number of prevalent risk behaviors (p < 0.001). These results reinforce that policies to promote health should consider social capital.

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The Long-Term Effects of the Printing Press in sub-Saharan Africa

American Economic Journal Applied Economics ◽

10.1257/app.20140379 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 69-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Julia Cagé ◽

Valeria Rueda

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Indigenous Population ◽

Geographic Location ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Printing Press ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Health Related ◽

Long Term Consequences ◽

Sub Saharan

This article investigates the long-term consequences of the printing press in the nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa on social capital nowadays. Protestant missionaries were the first to import the printing press and to allow the indigenous population to use it. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant missions in 1903. This dataset includes, for each mission station, the geographic location and its characteristics, as well as the printing-, educational-, and health-related investments undertaken by the mission. We show that, within regions close to missions, proximity to a printing press is associated with higher newspaper readership, trust, education, and political participation. (JEL L82, N37, N77, N97, O17, O43, Z13)

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Pediatric health-related quality of life and school social capital through network perspectives

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0242670 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (12) ◽

pp. e0242670

Author(s):

Tomoya Hirota ◽

Michio Takahashi ◽

Masaki Adachi ◽

Kazuhiko Nakamura

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Social Capital ◽

Network Structure ◽

Population Sample ◽

Health Related Quality ◽

Pediatric Health ◽

Related Quality ◽

Health Related ◽

School Social Capital

Background Despite their importance in population health among children and adolescents, our understanding of how individual items mutually interact within and between pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and school social capital is limited. Methods We employed network analysis in a general population sample of 7759 children aged 9–15 years to explore the network structure of relations among pediatric HRQOL and school social capital items measured using validated scales. Furthermore, network centrality was examined to identify central items that had stronger and more direct connections with other items in the network than others. Network structure and overall strength of connectivity among items were compared between groups (by sex and age). Results Our analysis revealed that the item related to school/academic functioning and the item related to shared enjoyment among students had the highest strength centrality in the network of HRQOL and school social capital, respectively, underpinning their critical roles in pediatric HRQOL and school social capital. Additionally, the edge connecting “I trust my friends at school” and “trouble getting along with peers” had the strongest negative edge weight among ones connecting school social capital and pediatric HRQOL constructs. Network comparison test revealed stronger overall network connectivity in middle schoolers compared to elementary schoolers but no differences between male and female students. Conclusion The network approach elucidated the complex relationship of mutually influencing items within and between pediatric HRQOL and school social capital. Addressing central items may promote children’s perceived health and school social capital.

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