Social Capital as a Determinant of Self-Rated Health in Women of Reproductive Age: A Population-Based Study

Abstract

Introduction:Recognition of the factors related to women’s health is necessary. Evidence is available that the social structure including social capital plays an important role in the shaping people’s health. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and social capital in women of reproductive age.Methods:This study is a population-based cross-sectional survey on 770 women of reproductive age, residing in any one of the 22 municipality areas across Tehran (capital of Iran) with the multi stage sampling technique. Self-rated health (Dependent variable), social capital (Independent variable) and covariates were studied. Analysis of data was done by one-way ANOVA test and multiple linear regressions.Results:Depending on logistic regression analyses, the significant associations were found between self-rated health and age, educational level, crowding index, sufficiency of income for expenses and social cohesion. Data show that women with higher score in social cohesion as an outcome dimension of social capital have better self-rated health (PV = 0.001).Conclusion:Given the findings of this study, the dimensions of social capital manifestations (groups and networks, trust and solidarity, collective action and cooperation) can potentially lead to the dimensions of social capital outcomes (social cohesion and inclusion, and empowerment and political action). Following that, social cohesion as a dimension of social capital outcomes has positively relationship with self- rated health after controlling covariates. Therefore, it is required to focus on the social capital role on health promotion and health policies.

Does the recent intensification of nationalistic and xenophobic attitudes in Eastern European countries adversely affect public mental health?

“…It seems to us that such actions are possible. They result from the methods of ‘positive psychology’ and ‘positive psychiatry’ [5, 6], the principles of strengthening the local social capital [28–35] and the acquired knowledge of psychological regularities related to the formation of xenophobic attitudes, especially in children and adolescents [36–42]. These include: (1) specific publicist and cultural interventions (promotion of specific novels, movies) [43, 44] and (2) the promotion of certain already-developed software tools and social media e.g.…”

Populist Upheavals: What can we do?

“…One should also stimulate research into the essence of collective consciousness [24][25][26] and the ability to cooperate, the so-called social capital [53][54][55][56][57][58][59].…”

The Relationship between Social Capital and Self-Efficacy in Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Scoring the questionnaire is based on 4-point Likert scales as 1 (No, not at all), to 4 (Yes, definitely or nearly always). The highest score indicates the highest social capital ( 24 – 26 ). The reliability of this questionnaire was assessed and confirmed previously in Iran (Cronbach alpha=0.79) ( 24 ).…”