A prospective analysis of the effect of neighbourhood and individual social capital on changes in self-rated health of people with chronic illness.

Geeke Waverijn,Mieke Rijken,Mary K Wolfe,Peter Groenewegen,Sigrid Mohnen,Peter Spreeuwenberg

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-675

Abstract

BackgroundSocial capital in the living environment, both on the individual and neighbourhood level, is positively associated with people’s self-rated health; however, prospective and longitudinal studies are rare, making causal conclusions difficult. To shed more light on the direction of the relationship between social capital and self-rated health, we investigated main and interaction effects of individual and neighbourhood social capital at baseline on changes in self-rated health of people with a somatic chronic disease.MethodsIndividual social capital, self-rated health and other individual level variables were assessed among a nationwide sample of 1048 non-institutionalized people with a somatic chronic disease residing in 259 neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. The assessment of neighbourhood social capital was based on data from a nationwide survey among the general Dutch population. The association of social capital with changes in self-rated health was assessed by multilevel regression analysis.ResultsBoth individual social capital and neighbourhood social capital at baseline were significantly associated with changes in self-rated health over the time period of 2005 to 2008 while controlling for several disease characteristics, other individual level and neighbourhood level characteristics. No significant interactions were found between social capital on the individual and on the neighbourhood level.ConclusionsHigher levels of individual and neighbourhood social capital independently and positively affect changes in self-rated health of people with chronic illness. Although most of the variation in health is explained at the individual level, one’s social environment should be considered as a possible relevant influence on the health of the chronically ill.

Highlights

Social capital in the living environment, both on the individual and neighbourhood level, is positively associated with people’s self-rated health; prospective and longitudinal studies are rare, making causal conclusions difficult
A study published after this review examined the effect of neighbourhood social capital on health among a sample of pregnant women in Brazil [29]
This research aims to contribute to existing literature by examining the relationship between social capital, both on the individual and on the neighbourhood level, and changes over time in self-rated health among people with a somatic chronic disease

Summary

Introduction

Social capital in the living environment, both on the individual and neighbourhood level, is positively associated with people’s self-rated health; prospective and longitudinal studies are rare, making causal conclusions difficult. To shed more light on the direction of the relationship between social capital and self-rated health, we investigated main and interaction effects of individual and neighbourhood social capital at baseline on changes in self-rated health of people with a somatic chronic disease. Beyond characteristics of the individual, physical and social features of the environment are related to variations in human health and disease [1,2,3,4,5] This has sparked considerable interest in the association between neighbourhood context and health outcomes. We investigate change in self-rated health over time in relation to social capital in neighbourhoods at baseline. We study both collective and individual social capital. Collective social capital is located on the geographical level and is based on the level of social capital of the inhabitants of a neighbourhood

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