Social capital and health status: longitudinal race and ethnicity differences in older adults from 2006 to 2014.

OBJECTIVES

We examined the longitudinal associations of social capital on self-rated health and differences by race/ethnicity in older adults.

METHODS

We used Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of US adults aged ≥ 50 years evaluated every 2 years (2006-2014) (N = 18,859). We investigated the relationship between social capital indicators (neighborhood social cohesion/physical disorder, positive/negative social support) with self-rated health accounting for age, gender, education and stratified by race/ethnicity. We used structural equation multilevel modeling estimating the associations: within-wave and between-persons.

RESULTS

We observed between-persons-level associations among social capital indicators and self-rated health. Individuals with overall levels of positive social support and neighborhood social cohesion tended to have overall better self-rated health [correlations 0.21 (p < 0.01) and 0.29 (p < 0.01), respectively]. For Hispanics, the correlations with self-rated health were lower for neighborhood social cohesion (0.19) and negative social support (- 0.09), compared to Whites (0.29 and - 0.20). African-Americans showed lower correlations of positive social support (0.14) compared to Whites (0.21) and Hispanics (0.28).

CONCLUSIONS

Interventions targeting social capital are in need, specifically those reinforcing positive social support and neighborhood social cohesion and diminishing neighborhood physical disorder and negative social support of older adults.