Neighborhood linking social capital as a predictor of drug abuse: A Swedish national cohort study

Abstract

Aims This study examines the association between the incidence of drug abuse (DA) and linking (communal) social capital, a theoretical concept describing the amount of trust between individuals and societal institutions. Methods We present results from an 8-year population-based cohort study that followed all residents in Sweden, aged 15–44, from 2003 through 2010, for a total of 1,700,896 men and 1,642,798 women. Linking social capital was conceptualized as the proportion of people in a geographically defined neighborhood who voted in local government elections. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and between-neighborhood variance. Results We found robust associations between linking social capital and DA in men and women. For men, the OR for DA in the crude model was 2.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.02–2.21] for those living in neighborhoods with the lowest vs. highest level of social capital. After accounting for neighborhood level deprivation, the OR fell to 1.59 (1.51–1-68). The ORs remained significant after accounting for age, family income, marital status, country of birth, education level, and region of residence, and after further accounting for comorbidities and family history of comorbidities and family history of DA. For women, the OR decreased from 2.15 (2.03–2.27) in the crude model to 1.31 (1.22–1.40) in the final model, adjusted for multiple neighborhood-level, individual-level variables, and family history for DA. Conclusions Our study suggests that low linking social capital may have significant independent effects on DA.

Retrospective study of addictive drug-induced acute toxicity of cases admitted to the Poison Control Centre of Ain Shams University Hospital (2015–2016)

“…The importance of the residence is to study the relation between the residence (as a pointer for the socioeconomic level) and drug abuse. This is in agreement with Sundquist et al, (2016) who reported in their study that drug abuse was more common in urban areas like large-and medium-sized cities but less frequent in rural and small cities.…”

From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road: Automated redistricting of areas using physical barriers as dividers of social space

“…The geographical sense of place is much more in focus when utilizing other generic geographical units like the SAMS in Sweden (Brydsten et al, 2017; Carlsson et al, 2017; Lagerlund et al, 2015; Merlo et al, 2013; Östh et al, 2014; Sundquist et al, 2016). These areas are constructed especially for homogeneity in smaller units since they are often purchased by commercial organizations to better focus their marketing at the correct demographic.…”

Social Capital and Health Risk: An Integrative Review

“…The confusion regarding the use of proxy measures such as trust, participation and social support need attention because the use of different social capital proxies has led to problems in comparing research findings across studies. Scholars in public health clinical domains have recognised the importance of social capital and stressed the need to improve the measurement of social capital variables for solving public health problems such as smoking and drug use ( Sundquist et al ., 2016 ). Thus, priority should be given to develop a reliable instrument for measuring the structure of social capital at the various levels and forms so that it can be applied to different contexts and groups.…”

“…Two other concepts – social support and community cohesion – are commonly treated as proxy measures of social capital in the studies that adopted the unidimensional approach. For instance, either social support or community cohesion is related to HIV risk behaviours (Bhattacharya, 2005; Grosso, 2010), physical activity (Singh et al, 2009), or smoking (Li and Delva, 2012). Some scholars considered social support as a behavioural outcome of social capital.…”