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Social capital as a determinant of self-rated health and psychological well-being

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objective

To examine whether specific dimensions of social capital are related to self-rated health and psychological well-being.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from a health survey representing the adult Finnish population (N = 8,028) were used. Logistic regression analysis was used to reveal and quantify the possible associations between three dimensions of social capital (social support; social participation and networks; trust and reciprocity) and two general health indicators (self-rated health and psychological well-being). The roles of age, gender, education, living arrangements, income, type of region, functional capacity, and long-standing illness were also assessed.

Results

Good self-rated health was associated with high levels of social participation and networks and trust and reciprocity, but social support did not remain statistically significant after adjustment for socio-demographic factors, long-standing illness, and functional capacity. The association between social support and psychological well-being was explained by the other two dimensions of social capital. The strong positive association between trust and psychological well-being persisted after controlling for all the other factors in our model.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that trust and reciprocity and social participation and networks contribute to good self-rated health and psychological well-being.

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Acknowledgment

This work was funded by a grant from the Academy of Finland (no. 207447).

Conflict of interest statement

Authors do not have any conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Functional Capacity and Welfare, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), PL 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

    Tarja Nieminen & Seppo Koskinen

  2. Thematic Programmes Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland

    Tuija Martelin

  3. Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland

    Hillevi Aro

  4. Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Turku, Finland

    Erkki Alanen & Markku T. Hyyppä

Authors
  1. Tarja Nieminen
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  2. Tuija Martelin
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  3. Seppo Koskinen
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  4. Hillevi Aro
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  5. Erkki Alanen
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  6. Markku T. Hyyppä
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Correspondence to Tarja Nieminen.

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Nieminen, T., Martelin, T., Koskinen, S. et al. Social capital as a determinant of self-rated health and psychological well-being. Int J Public Health 55, 531–542 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-010-0138-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-010-0138-3

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