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Comparative Study
. 2020 Apr;65(3):291-302.
doi: 10.1007/s00038-020-01341-2. Epub 2020 Feb 21.

Social capital and health status: longitudinal race and ethnicity differences in older adults from 2006 to 2014

Ester Villalonga-Olives  1 , Josue Almansa  2 , Cheryl L Knott  3 , Yusuf Ransome  4
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Social capital and health status: longitudinal race and ethnicity differences in older adults from 2006 to 2014

Ester Villalonga-Olives et al. Int J Public Health. 2020 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: We examined the longitudinal associations of social capital on self-rated health and differences by race/ethnicity in older adults.

Methods: We used Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of US adults aged ≥ 50 years evaluated every 2 years (2006-2014) (N = 18,859). We investigated the relationship between social capital indicators (neighborhood social cohesion/physical disorder, positive/negative social support) with self-rated health accounting for age, gender, education and stratified by race/ethnicity. We used structural equation multilevel modeling estimating the associations: within-wave and between-persons.

Results: We observed between-persons-level associations among social capital indicators and self-rated health. Individuals with overall levels of positive social support and neighborhood social cohesion tended to have overall better self-rated health [correlations 0.21 (p < 0.01) and 0.29 (p < 0.01), respectively]. For Hispanics, the correlations with self-rated health were lower for neighborhood social cohesion (0.19) and negative social support (- 0.09), compared to Whites (0.29 and - 0.20). African-Americans showed lower correlations of positive social support (0.14) compared to Whites (0.21) and Hispanics (0.28).

Conclusions: Interventions targeting social capital are in need, specifically those reinforcing positive social support and neighborhood social cohesion and diminishing neighborhood physical disorder and negative social support of older adults.

Keywords: Health status; Longitudinal; Multilevel; Older adults; Racial differences; Social capital.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Structure of the data in the statistical analysis. The Health and Retirement Study, US, data from 2006 to 2014
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