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      Social capital and health: A systematic review of systematic reviews

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          Abstract

          There are many systematic reviews on social capital (SC) and various health outcomes, but each of these reviews shows one piece of the larger SC and health puzzle. The aim of this research was to systematically review systematic reviews on SC and health, in order to provide an overview of existing evidence and to identify strategies for future research. Nine databases were searched for key words that could fall under the broad umbrella of SC and health outcomes. We screened 4941 titles and abstracts and read 187 reviews before retaining 20 of them. A critical appraisal of each review was conducted. The reviews show there is good evidence to suggest that SC predicts better mental and physical health, and indicators of SC are protective against mortality. At the same time, many reviews also found numerous non-significant and negative relationships that are important to consider. It was unclear whether SC interventions for health were really improving SC, or other aspects of the social environment. Overall, this research shows that evidence on how various aspects of SC affect different health outcomes for different actors remains unclear. Intergroup and lifecourse perspectives could help clarify this link. Future research could benefit from conceptualizing the link between SC and health in a what, who, where, when, why and how framework.

          Highlights

          • Social capital predicts better health.

          • Other aspects of social capital should also be considered in health research.

          • Recommendations on how to improve social capital and health research are made.

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          Most cited references53

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          The challenge of defining wellbeing

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            A Three-Factor Model of Social Identity

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              Social capital, income inequality, and mortality.

              Recent studies have demonstrated that income inequality is related to mortality rates. It was hypothesized, in this study, that income inequality is related to reduction in social cohesion and that disinvestment in social capital is in turn associated with increased mortality. In this cross-sectional ecologic study based on data from 39 states, social capital was measured by weighted responses to two items from the General Social Survey: per capita density of membership in voluntary groups in each state and level of social trust, as gauged by the proportion of residents in each state who believed that people could be trusted. Age-standardized total and cause-specific mortality rates in 1990 were obtained for each state. Income inequality was strongly correlated with both per capita group membership (r = -.46) and lack of social trust (r = .76). In turn, both social trust and group membership were associated with total mortality, as well as rates of death from coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, and infant mortality. These data support the notion that income inequality leads to increased mortality via disinvestment in social capital.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                SSM Popul Health
                SSM Popul Health
                SSM - Population Health
                Elsevier
                2352-8273
                07 June 2019
                August 2019
                07 June 2019
                : 8
                : 100425
                Affiliations
                [a ]Life Course and Inequality Research Centre, Institute for Social Sciences, University of Lausanne. Quartier UNIL-Mouline, Batiment Géopolis, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
                [b ]Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES, University of Lausanne. Quartier UNIL-Mouline, Batiment Géopolis, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
                Author notes
                []Corresponding author. Quartier UNIL-Mouline, Batiment Géopolis Institute des Sciences Sociales, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. annahita.ehsan@ 123456unil.ch
                Article
                S2352-8273(19)30114-4 100425
                10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100425
                6580321
                31431915
                ced97aad-0583-4c74-8179-b5a1673c77b9
                © 2019 The Authors

                This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

                History
                : 4 April 2019
                : 27 May 2019
                : 4 June 2019
                Categories
                Article

                social capital,social cohesion,social networks,social identity,lifecourse,health,systematic review

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