The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Social capital, geography and health: a small-area analysis for England

Social capital, geography and health: a small-area analysis for England
Social capital, geography and health: a small-area analysis for England
There has recently been much debate about the influence of social capital on health outcomes. In particular it has been suggested that levels of social capital vary from place to place and that such variations may account for previously unexplained between-place variations in health outcomes. As yet few studies exist of the influence of small-area variations in social capital on health outcomes. One reason for this is the difficulty of obtaining indicators for small areas such as electoral wards in England, and we describe a method used to derive what we term ‘synthetic estimates’ of aspects of social capital by linking coefficients produced from multi-level analyses of national survey datasets to census data. We produce estimates for electoral wards in England and apply these in multi-level models of our response variable, the probability of survival of individuals surveyed in the Health and Lifestyle Survey of England. We report various combinations of models incorporating individual attributes, health-related behaviours, area measures of deprivation, and area measures of social capital. Our overall conclusion is that we find little support, at this spatial scale, for the proposition that area measures of social capital exert a beneficial effect on health outcomes.
social capital, place, health inequalities, health and lifestyle survey, multi-level modelling, UK
0277-9536
1267-1283
Mohan, John
01d0f96b-aee7-4f4d-ad3f-e177231005f6
Twigg, Liz
41a8c6df-488f-4c0f-b38d-e83b8b41728c
Barnard, Steve
eca9ee1a-5fd2-414f-ac05-da866ea83df8
Jones, Kelvyn
0df468d5-eeec-4694-8415-352df0e2e36e
Mohan, John
01d0f96b-aee7-4f4d-ad3f-e177231005f6
Twigg, Liz
41a8c6df-488f-4c0f-b38d-e83b8b41728c
Barnard, Steve
eca9ee1a-5fd2-414f-ac05-da866ea83df8
Jones, Kelvyn
0df468d5-eeec-4694-8415-352df0e2e36e

Mohan, John, Twigg, Liz, Barnard, Steve and Jones, Kelvyn (2005) Social capital, geography and health: a small-area analysis for England. Social Science & Medicine, 60 (6), 1267-1283. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.06.050).

Record type: Article

Abstract

There has recently been much debate about the influence of social capital on health outcomes. In particular it has been suggested that levels of social capital vary from place to place and that such variations may account for previously unexplained between-place variations in health outcomes. As yet few studies exist of the influence of small-area variations in social capital on health outcomes. One reason for this is the difficulty of obtaining indicators for small areas such as electoral wards in England, and we describe a method used to derive what we term ‘synthetic estimates’ of aspects of social capital by linking coefficients produced from multi-level analyses of national survey datasets to census data. We produce estimates for electoral wards in England and apply these in multi-level models of our response variable, the probability of survival of individuals surveyed in the Health and Lifestyle Survey of England. We report various combinations of models incorporating individual attributes, health-related behaviours, area measures of deprivation, and area measures of social capital. Our overall conclusion is that we find little support, at this spatial scale, for the proposition that area measures of social capital exert a beneficial effect on health outcomes.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2005
Keywords: social capital, place, health inequalities, health and lifestyle survey, multi-level modelling, UK

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 19142
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/19142
ISSN: 0277-9536
PURE UUID: 55204896-4b90-42dc-be9d-4f3bef2c209c

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Jan 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 06:11

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: John Mohan
Author: Liz Twigg
Author: Steve Barnard
Author: Kelvyn Jones

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×