Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb;53(2):107-119.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-017-1469-7. Epub 2017 Dec 12.

Mental health impact of social capital interventions: a systematic review

Elaine C Flores  1   2 , Daniela C Fuhr  3 , Angela M Bayer  4   5 , Andres G Lescano  4 , Nicki Thorogood  3 , Victoria Simms  3
Affiliations

Mental health impact of social capital interventions: a systematic review

Elaine C Flores et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: Mental disorders are a major contributor to the global burden of disease and disability, and can be extremely costly at both individual and community level. Social capital, (SC) defined as an individual's social relationships and participation in community networks, may lower the risk of mental disorders while increasing resilience capacity, adaptation and recovery. SC interventions may be a cost-effective way of preventing and ameliorating these conditions. However, the impact of these SC interventions on mental health still needs research.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of SC-based interventions to investigate their effect on mental health outcomes from controlled, quasi-experimental studies or pilot trials. We searched twelve academic databases, three clinical trials registries, hand-searched references and contacted field experts. Studies' quality was assessed with the Cochrane Risk of Bias tools for randomized and non-randomized studies.

Results: Seven studies were included in the review, published between 2006 and 2016. There was substantial heterogeneity in the definitions of both SC and mental disorders among the studies, preventing us from calculating pooled effect sizes. The interventions included community engagement and educative programs, cognitive processing therapy and sociotherapy for trauma survivors, and neighbourhood projects.

Conclusions: There are paucity of SC interventions investigating the effect on mental health outcomes. This study showed that both SC scores and mental health outcomes improved over time but there was little evidence of benefit compared to control groups in the long term. Further high-quality trials are needed, especially among adverse populations to assess sustainability of effect.

Keywords: Mental health; Psycho-social intervention; Social capital; Systematic review; Well-being.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study selection. *More than one exclusion criteria was considered for some of the studies
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Risk of bias—summary of included studies
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Risk of bias—graph percentages across included studies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Vos T, Barber RM, Bell B, et al. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2013. Lancet. 2015;386(9995):743–800. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60692-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Whiteford HA, Ferrari AJ, Degenhardt L, Feigin V, Vos T. The global burden of mental, neurological and substance use disorders: an analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0116820. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116820. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Insel TR. Assessing the economic costs of serious mental illness. Am J Psychiatry. 2008;165(6):663–665. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08030366 doi. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Leon AC, Solomon DA, Mueller TI, Endicott J, Rice JP, Maser JD, Coryell W, Keller MB. A 20-year longitudinal observational study of somatic antidepressant treatment effectiveness. Focus. 2005;3(1):106–113. doi: 10.1176/foc.3.1.106. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Naylor CPM, McDaid D, Knapp M, Fossey M, Galea A. The cost of co-morbidities. The King’s Fund and Centre for Mental Health; London, UK: 2012. Long-term conditions and mental health.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources