Social Capital and Health Outcomes Among Older Adults in China: The Urban-Rural Dimension

Abstract

The relationship between social capital and health outcomes should take into account geographical setting. Efforts to increase social capital in the hope of decreasing health disparity might be inadequate without eliminating China's unique rural-urban distinction in distributing economic and social resources. Further conceptualization of social capital may be required for the Eastern context.

Social Capital and Self-Rated Health Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China

“…One possible explanation for the negative direction is that we did not make a distinction between monetary and non-monetary help. Based on their study of social capital and health among older Chinese adults, Norstrand and her coauthor (Norstrand et al, 2011) have argued that in the Chinese context, material support impacted health in a different way from that of the emotional support. Another possible explanation is that some respondents received help just because they were in need of help owing to their poor health.…”

“…Recent years has witnessed a growing interest in examining the association between social capital and health among older adults (Berry & Welsh, 2010;Ichida, Kondo, & Hirai, 2009;Snelgore, Pikhart, & Stafford, 2009;Ziersch, Baum, Darmawan, Anne, & Bentlet, 2009). Only limited studies has focused on studying social capital and health in the Chinese cultural context (e.g., Norstrand & Xu, 2011;Wang, Schlesinger, Wang, & William, 2008;Yip et al, 2007). And there existed variations in these findings in terms of the relationship between social capital and health status.…”

“…And the literature has not yet reached a consensus on how to measure social capital in the Chinese cultural context. For example, three studies on social capital and health in the Chinese context (Norstrand & Xu, 2011;Wang et al, 2008;Yip et al, 2007) varied from each other in measuring social capital. From the existing literature on social capital and health, it appears that the social variables most often being used as reflection of social capital are trust, participation in voluntary organizations, social support, perceived help, network, and so on (Fujisawa et al, 2009;Kawachi et al, 1999;Putnam, 1993;Berry et al, 2000).…”

“…From the existing literature on social capital and health, it appears that the social variables most often being used as reflection of social capital are trust, participation in voluntary organizations, social support, perceived help, network, and so on (Fujisawa et al, 2009;Kawachi et al, 1999;Putnam, 1993;Berry et al, 2000). But some empirical studies have doubted the full applicability of using indicators and questionnaires developed in western cultural context to measure social capital in Chinese society (Norstrand & Xu, 2011;Xu, Perkins, & Chow, 2010). Further, social capital at the community level in some studies was aggregated by individual level perceptions (Fujisawa et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2008;Yip et al, 2007).…”

Differences in Social Capital Across the Croatian Population Based on the Level of Settlement Urbanisation

“…Posredstvom jednog ili više indikatora po dimenziji DK, dio je istraživao sve četiri dimenzije (Onyx i Bullen, 2000;Putnam, 2000;Ziersch i dr., 2009;Nummela i dr., 2009;Xu, Perkins i Chow, 2010;Meng i Chen, 2014;Wun'Gaeo i dr., 2014;Sørensen, 2016), dok su ostali bili fokusirani na njih jednu do tri (Beaudoin i Thorson, 2004;Norstrand i Xu, 2011;Mohnen i dr., 2011;Sørensen, 2012).…”