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Social Capital and Self-Rated Health in Older Populations in Lower- and Upper-Middle Income Countries

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Social Capital as a Health Resource in Later Life: The Relevance of Context

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 11))

Abstract

Evidence on how access to social capital influences health among older populations in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is generally lacking. The existing evidence indicates that associations with health might be stronger for cognitive forms of social capital compared to structural forms. This chapter presents the comparative patterns of levels of individual social capital, and its association with self-rated health among older populations. Data from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) conducted in nationally representative samples of adults in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation and South Africa were used. This study shows that (i) older men consistently reported better health than older women across the six countries; (ii) there is considerable gender heterogeneity in access to structural and cognitive social capital within each country and across the countries; and (iii) the associations between access to social capital and self-rated health differ between men and women within the same cultural context, as well as between cultural contexts across different countries. Access to bridging social capital and personal trust shows a positive and significant effect on self-rated health in both sexes, while access to bonding social capital and general trust have positive health effects only among women, and access to safety has a positive effect on health only among men. A better understanding of both individual and social determinants in the relationship between social capital and health in different settings is warranted and would allow for better-tailored public health recommendations for achieving health improvement in different settings.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the WHO SAGE collaborators for making the SAGE dataset publicly available. SAGE was supported by the Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), US National Institutes of Health , through Interagency Agreements (OGHA 04034785; YA1323-08-CN-0020; Y1-AG-1005-01) with WHO. This work has been conducted within the Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, with support from FAS, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (grant no. 2006-1512).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Unit of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Umeå University, 90187, Umeå, Sweden

    Nawi Ng & Malin Eriksson

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  1. Nawi Ng
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  2. Malin Eriksson
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Correspondence to Nawi Ng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Study Programme in Social Sciences, Social Policy, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland

    Fredrica Nyqvist

  2. Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Study Programme in Social Sciences, Developmental Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland

    Anna K. Forsman

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Ng, N., Eriksson, M. (2015). Social Capital and Self-Rated Health in Older Populations in Lower- and Upper-Middle Income Countries. In: Nyqvist, F., Forsman, A. (eds) Social Capital as a Health Resource in Later Life: The Relevance of Context. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9615-6_10

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