University of Windsor, 401 Sunset, Windsor, Canada N9B 3P4.
Soc Sci Med. 2010 Sep;71(5):1037-44. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.033. Epub 2010 Jun 12.
Despite extensive research on the relationship between social capital and health, the specific pathways through which social capital is related to health have not been fully elucidated. Moreover, research has generally been cross-sectional, particularly in Canada, and hence not clearly attentive to the causal relationship between social capital and health. In this study we have examined the importance of multiple forms of individual social capital for the functional health status of adult Canadians, employing the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS). We examine changes in health between 1996 and 2000, using individual level variables from 1996 as predictors. In our final model, the key aspect of social capital affecting changes in health status is being loved by someone. This is predicted by being married, frequency of family contacts, religious service attendance and being born in Canada. Insecurity about food also has a direct effect on changes in health status. The latter is affected by income, daily smoking and age. The results suggest that policies to support family stability and family unification, for example through immigration, and efforts to minimize the disruptions of divorce could contribute to the health of Canadians.
尽管对社会资本与健康之间的关系进行了广泛的研究，但社会资本与健康之间的具体关联途径仍未得到充分阐明。此外，研究通常是横断面的，特别是在加拿大，因此并没有清楚地关注社会资本与健康之间的因果关系。在这项研究中，我们利用加拿大全国人口健康调查（NPHS）的数据，研究了多种形式的个人社会资本对加拿大成年人功能健康状况的重要性。我们考察了 1996 年至 2000 年间健康状况的变化，并使用 1996 年的个体水平变量作为预测因素。在我们的最终模型中，影响健康状况变化的社会资本的关键方面是被某人所爱。这可以通过结婚、家庭联系的频率、参加宗教服务和在加拿大出生来预测。对食物的不安全感也会对健康状况的变化产生直接影响。后者受到收入、每日吸烟和年龄的影响。研究结果表明，支持家庭稳定和家庭统一的政策，例如通过移民，以及努力减少离婚的影响，都可能有助于加拿大人的健康。
