title: Predictors of mental and physical health: individual and neighborhood levels of education, social well-being, and ethnicity.
abstract: This study examines how education benefits health through social well-being in Hawaii where the centrality of community life is underscored. The 2007 Hawaii Health Survey with linked zip-code information was used to investigate the effects of education at both individual and neighborhood levels using mixed-effects models. Geographic Information System was applied to map the geographical distributions of education, social well-being, and health. It was found that individual-level education benefits mental health and its effects are largely mediated by respondents' employment status and their social well-being (social integration, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence). Both individual and neighborhood-level education promotes physical health and their effects are partially mediated by economic well-being and two indicators of social well-being (social integration and social coherence). Results of this study suggest the independent effects of two levels of education on physical health and the importance of education and social well-being to both mental and physical health in the State of Hawaii.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. weizhang@hawaii.edu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hamilton
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McCubbin
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McCubbin
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Foley
mesh_terms: D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii / Q000453:epidemiology; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012933:Social Identification; D012934:Social Isolation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors