Professor, School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Senior Fellow, School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Indian J Public Health. 2018 Oct-Dec;62(4):294-298. doi: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_274_17.
Social capital has been recognized as part of the WHO's Social Determinants of Health model given that social connections and relationships may serve as resources of information and tangible support. While the association between socioeconomic position and health is relatively well established, scant empirical research has been conducted in developing countries on the association between social capital and health.
Based on the WHO's Social Determinants of Health framework, we tested whether social capital mediates the effect of socioeconomic position on mental and physical health.
A population-based study was conducted among a representative sample (n = 1563) of men and women in Chandigarh, India. We used standardized scales for measuring social capital (mediator variable) and self-rated mental and physical health (outcome variable).
A socioeconomic position index (independent variable) was computed from education, occupation, and caste categories. Mediation model was tested using path analysis in IBM SPSS-Amos. Participants' mean age was 40.1 years. About half of the participants were women (49.3%), and most were relatively well educated. The results showed that socioeconomic position was a significant predictor of physical and mental health. Social capital was a significant mediator of the effect of socioeconomic position on mental health but not physical health.
Besides removing socioeconomic barriers through poverty alleviation programs, interventions to improve social capital, especially in economically disadvantaged communities, may help in improving population health.
社会资本已被视为世界卫生组织（WHO）社会决定健康模型的一部分，因为社会联系和关系可以作为信息和有形支持的资源。虽然社会经济地位与健康之间的关联已经得到相对充分的证实，但在发展中国家，关于社会资本与健康之间的关联的实证研究却很少。
基于世界卫生组织的社会决定健康框架，我们检验了社会资本是否在社会经济地位对心理健康和身体健康的影响中起中介作用。
在印度昌迪加尔，对一个具有代表性的男性和女性样本（n=1563）进行了一项基于人群的研究。我们使用了标准化的量表来衡量社会资本（中介变量）和自我评估的心理健康和身体健康（结果变量）。
使用教育、职业和种姓类别计算了一个社会经济地位指数（自变量）。在 IBM SPSS-Amos 中使用路径分析来检验中介模型。参与者的平均年龄为 40.1 岁。大约一半的参与者是女性（49.3%），而且大多数人受教育程度相对较高。结果表明，社会经济地位是心理健康和身体健康的重要预测因素。社会资本是社会经济地位对心理健康影响的重要中介，但对身体健康没有影响。
除了通过扶贫计划消除社会经济障碍外，改善社会资本的干预措施，特别是在经济落后的社区，可能有助于改善人口健康。
