title: Social capital and health-purely a question of context?
abstract: Debate still surrounds which level of analysis (individual vs. contextual) is most appropriate to investigate the effects of social capital on health. Applying multilevel ecometric analyses to British Household Panel Survey data, we estimated fixed and random effects between five individual-, household- and small area-level social capital indicators and general health. We further compared the variance in health attributable to each level using intraclass correlations. Our results demonstrate that association between social capital and health depends on indicator type and level investigated, with one quarter of total individual-level health variance found at the household level. However, individual-level social capital variables and other health determinants appear to influence contextual-level variance the most.
authors.affiliation: Social Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Skånes University Hospital, SUS, Lund University, Clinical Research Centre, Building 28, Floor 12, Entrance 72, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden. Giuseppe_nicola.giordano@med.lu.se
authors.forename: Giuseppe Nicola
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohlsson
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindström
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012944:Social Support; D013548:Sweden; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult