School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
The Braun School of Public Health & Community Medicine, The Hebrew University-Hadassah, Jerusalem 9112102, Israel.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 20;19(6):3698. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063698.
Loneliness has been associated with poor health. Social capital (SC) could possibly prevent the ill effects of loneliness. The study aims to assess the association of loneliness with physical and mental health in four different communities in Israel and study the impact of structural and cognitive SC on that association. A cross-sectional face-to-face survey with 4620 adults in four towns was conducted. The questionnaire included self-rated health (SRH), mental health (MH), loneliness, cognitive and structural SC and socioeconomic characteristics. Logistic regression analysis and mediation and moderation effects were calculated. Loneliness was associated with worse SRH (OR = 0.4-0.5) and worse MH (OR = 2.0-10). Both SC variables were associated with health. However, towns differ in these associations. Structural SC serves as a significant mediator between loneliness and SRH in all towns and is a mediator between loneliness and MH in two towns. Cognitive social capital was a moderator between loneliness and MH in two towns. This study suggests that increasing SC could possibly compensate for loneliness and buffer its effect on health. The study reinforces the need for the performance of separate health profiles to assess possible interventions for each community, as not always can we generalize these results to all communities.
孤独与健康状况不佳有关。社会资本（SC）可能可以预防孤独的不良影响。本研究旨在评估孤独感与以色列四个不同社区的身心健康之间的关系，并研究结构和认知 SC 对这种关系的影响。在四个城镇进行了一项具有 4620 名成年人的横断面面对面调查。问卷包括自我评估健康（SRH）、心理健康（MH）、孤独感、认知和结构 SC 以及社会经济特征。计算了逻辑回归分析以及中介和调节效应。孤独感与较差的 SRH（OR=0.4-0.5）和较差的 MH（OR=2.0-10）相关。两个 SC 变量都与健康相关。然而，这些关联在城镇之间存在差异。在所有城镇中，结构 SC 是孤独感和 SRH 之间的重要中介，在两个城镇中是孤独感和 MH 之间的中介。认知社会资本是两个城镇中孤独感和 MH 之间的调节因素。本研究表明，增加 SC 可能可以弥补孤独感，并缓冲其对健康的影响。该研究强调需要针对每个社区进行单独的健康状况评估，以确定可能的干预措施，因为并非总是可以将这些结果推广到所有社区。
