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

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kamrul Islam ◽  
Juan Merlo ◽  
Ichiro Kawachi ◽  
Martin Lindström ◽  
Kristina Burström ◽  
...  

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.

2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (11) ◽  
pp. 1185-1193

Background: The systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients oftentimes suffer from both physical and psychosocial challenges that may lead to low health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, limited research has been done in this area. Objective: To examined mental health status and HRQoL among SLE patients in Thailand. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted at the rheumatology clinic of four major hospitals in Thailand. The paper-based questionnaire consisted of demographic, health history such as depression, anxiety, stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE), and the disease-specific Lupus Quality of Life scale (LupusQoL). Depending on the variable’s level of measurement such as categorical or continuous, Spearman’s Rho or Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients were used to explore the relationships among the variables. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to identify the predictors of LupusQoL. Results: Among the 387 participants, many might have experienced depression, anxiety, and stress (30%, 51%, and 29%, respectively). Self-esteem among the participants was good (31.8 out of 40). All eight domains of LupusQoL were affected with intimate relationship domain being impacted the most. The overall LupusQoL was significantly associated with the number of prescribed medications (r=–0.23), depression (r=–0.70), anxiety (r=–0.58), stress (r=–0.67), and self-esteem (r=0.59), p<0.001. Significant predictors of the overall LupusQoL were mental health status (depression, anxiety, and stress) and self-esteem, F (3, 81)=43.10, p<0.001, adjusted R²=0.60. Conclusion: SLE patients should be holistically assessed in both physical and psychological aspects. In addition to proper medical treatments, healthcare providers should use a multidisciplinary team approach to resolve the patients’ psychosocial issues, which in turn, may increase the patients’ quality of life. Self-care education may be necessary to help the patients manage the condition and decrease the number of medications. Keywords: Mental health, Quality of life, SLE, Thailand


Rheumatology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Smith ◽  
Bishma Saqib ◽  
Rebecca Lee ◽  
Wendy Thomson ◽  
Lis Cordingley

Abstract Background Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a heterogeneous group of arthritic conditions presenting in children and young people, in which physical limitations and associated complications can have detrimental effects on physical and psychosocial wellbeing. This study aims to investigate the impact of living with JIA on different aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and to explore how this changes over time, using data from the Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study (CAPS). Methods Longitudinal data collected as part of CAPS were analysed. HRQoL was assessed at baseline, 1 year and 3 years’ post-diagnosis using the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ), a parent-completed form for children from 5 years of age. The CHQ measures physical, emotional and social components of child health status. Raw domain scores were transformed via algorithm into values ranging from 0-100, with higher scores indicating better health status. Mean (standard deviation) and median (interquartile range) for each domain were determined, both for the full cohort and by gender. Differences between median scores at baseline and 3 years were assessed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Mean scores of each domain were visually compared with a reference population sample of healthy children from the United States. Results 184 participants completed the questionnaire at all 3 time points. At baseline, compared to the reference population, children with JIA scored lower in every domain although scores were closer between the 2 groups at 3 years. Median scores improved over time, the exception being the general health perceptions domain which decreased after baseline. Domains with the greatest improvement were physical functioning,“bodily pain and social-physical. The largest changes occurred from baseline to 1 year. Statistically significant differences between baseline and 3-year scores were found for all domains. Domain scores for male and female participants were very similar at baseline, though scores for male participants indicated slightly better health at 1 and 3 years for both physical and psychosocial domains. Conclusion JIA has significant impact on HRQoL, which improves within 3 years of diagnosis with the greatest improvement occurring within the first year. Physical health domains show greater improvement over time than psychosocial domains, although psychosocial scores were generally higher throughout the study. Male participants tend to score slightly higher than female participants in both physical and psychosocial domains after baseline. Further research should explore measurable patient, age or disease-related drivers of HRQoL. Disclosures A. Smith None. B. Saqib None. R. Lee None. W. Thomson None. L. Cordingley None.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIAOJIE SUN ◽  
KUN LIU ◽  
MARTIN WEBBER ◽  
LIZHENG SHI

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1935-1944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saku Väätäinen ◽  
Sirkka Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi ◽  
Jouko Saramies ◽  
Hannu Uusitalo ◽  
Jaakko Tuomilehto ◽  
...  

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