Carlson Elizabeth D, Chamberlain Robert M
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Nursing, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., HMB 2.200, Box 189, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
J Nurs Scholarsh. 2003;35(4):325-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1547-5069.2003.00325.x.
To synthesize the empirical evidence that links social capital to population health with the aim of identifying implications for health disparities research.
A literature search of PubMed and CINAHL databases from January 1990 to June 2002 was done using the search term "social capital." In addition, tables of contents of applicable journals from January 1997 to June 2002 were searched. Reference lists were examined for additional empirical and theoretical articles related to social capital and health. Eighty-four articles were retrieved for review and 19 articles met inclusion criteria.
Although most reseachers concluded that their findings supported an association between social capital and health, all research was descriptive, without conceptual development. This gap resulted in (a) lack of distinction of the concept as an attribute of a geographic space or as an individual attribute, (b) problematic use of operational variables, and (c) limited theoretical exploration of causal linkage. These deficits limit the usefulness of the concept for health disparities research.
The lack of conceptual development diminishes the usefulness of social capital as a variable for public health research. However, the empirical evidence is sufficient to warrant further work to advance the concept in relation to population health and health disparities.
综合将社会资本与人群健康联系起来的实证证据，以确定对健康差异研究的启示。
使用检索词“社会资本”对1990年1月至2002年6月的PubMed和CINAHL数据库进行文献检索。此外，还检索了1997年1月至2002年6月适用期刊的目录。检查参考文献列表以查找与社会资本和健康相关的其他实证和理论文章。检索到84篇文章进行综述，19篇文章符合纳入标准。
尽管大多数研究人员得出结论，他们的研究结果支持社会资本与健康之间存在关联，但所有研究都是描述性的，缺乏概念发展。这种差距导致了：（a）作为地理空间属性或个体属性的概念缺乏区分；（b）操作变量的使用存在问题；（c）因果联系的理论探索有限。这些不足限制了该概念在健康差异研究中的实用性。
概念发展的缺乏降低了社会资本作为公共卫生研究变量的有用性。然而，实证证据足以保证进一步开展工作，以推进与人群健康和健康差异相关的概念。
