The impact of changes in different aspects of social capital and material conditions on self-rated health over time: A longitudinal cohort study

The relationship between happiness and health: Evidence from Italy

“…As mentioned above, our finding of a significant and positive correlation between social trust and happiness in the first stage of the instrumental variables probit (see section 3) supports the relevance of this instrument. As for the orthogonality condition, it must be stated that there are studies finding a positive effect of social trust on individual health (Poortinga 2006;De Silva et al 2007;Petrou et al 2008;d'Hombres et al 2010;Giordano and Lindstrom 2010), but they do not simultaneously include measures of happiness. Thus, the effect of social trust could be due to its positive correlation with happiness.…”

Social capital and change in psychological health over time

“…These individual-level social capital proxies are described as having a 'structural' dimension, relating to social networks, and a 'cognitive' dimension, relating to individuals' perceptions of trust and reciprocity (Harpham, Grant, & Thomas, 2002). The two dimensions have been hypothesised to act in different ways to affect health outcomes, with many studies showing strong association between high levels of social capital and positive general health outcomes (Kawachi, Kennedy, & Glass, 1999;Kawachi, Kennedy, & Lochner, 1997;Lindström, Hanson, & Östergren, 2001;Giordano & Lindström, 2010). In comparison, studies researching social capital and psychological wellbeing demonstrate less consistent results, with individual-level 'cognitive' social capital studies showing a more consistent inverse association with poor psychological health than studies investigating 'structural' measures;…”

“…Kawachi et al (1999) originally postulated that communities with high levels of social capital were more likely to deter 'deviant' behaviours such as drinking, smoking and crime, maintain access to local resources and even promote healthier behaviours, such as regular exercise. It has been further postulated that individuals perceiving high levels of trust and reciprocity in their communities have better health, due to reduced exposure to chronic stressors (Wilkinson, 1996;Giordano & Lindström, 2010). These theories equally apply to psychological health, as regular physical exercise and maintaining access to resources affect psychological health outcomes, and high crime levels and chronic stressors are known precursors to worse psychological wellbeing (Aneshensel & Sucoff, 1996;Tennison, Rodgers, Beker, Vorobjeva, Creed, & Simonenko, 2010).…”

“…Furthermore, it is also vital that we keep 'cognitive' and 'structural' dimensions of social capital as separate entities, as the 'structural' dimension is the one most likely to influence health along social support pathways (Giordano & Lindström, 2010).…”

Can social capital contribute to the improvement of oral health?

“…Recent studies [1][2][3] have revealed that social determinants, among the latter of which is social capital, have an important influence on health. Émile Durkheim, in late nineteenth century, was the first researcher to suggest links between individual health and social cohesion in his study of suicide.…”