Yamaguchi Ayano
Reitaku University.
Glob J Health Sci. 2014 Feb 14;6(3):45-54. doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v6n3p45.
This paper discusses the concept of social capital as a potential factor in understanding the controversial relationship between income inequality and individual health status, arguing a positive, important role for social capital. Most of the health research literature focuses on individual health status and reveals that social capital increases individual health. However, the difficulty in measuring social capital, together with what may be the nearly impossible task of attributing causality, should relegate the concept to a more theoretical role in health research. Nonetheless, social capital receives academic attention as a potentially important factor in health research. This paper finds that the mixed results of empirical research on income inequality and health status remain a problem in the context of defining a stable relationship between socioeconomic status and health status. Clearly, further research is needed to elaborate on the income inequality and health relationship. In addition, focused, rigorous examination of social capital in a health context is needed before health researchers can comfortably introduce it as a concept of influence or significance.
本文探讨了社会资本这一概念，认为它是理解收入不平等与个体健康状况之间存在争议关系的一个潜在因素，并指出社会资本具有积极且重要的作用。大多数健康研究文献聚焦于个体健康状况，表明社会资本能增进个体健康。然而，社会资本难以衡量，再加上归因因果关系几乎是不可能完成的任务，这使得该概念在健康研究中更多地处于理论层面。尽管如此，社会资本作为健康研究中一个潜在的重要因素受到了学界关注。本文发现，在界定社会经济地位与健康状况之间的稳定关系时，关于收入不平等与健康状况的实证研究结果参差不齐仍是一个问题。显然，需要进一步研究来详细阐述收入不平等与健康之间的关系。此外，在健康研究人员能够放心地将社会资本作为一个有影响力或重要性的概念引入之前，需要在健康背景下对其进行重点、严谨的审视。
