title: Neighbourhood social capital: measurement issues and associations with health outcomes.
abstract: We compared ecometric neighbourhood scores of social capital (contextual variation) to mean neighbourhood scores (individual and contextual variation), using several health-related outcomes (i.e. self-rated health, weight status and obesity-related behaviours). Data were analysed from 5,900 participants in the European SPOTLIGHT survey. Factor analysis of the 13-item social capital scale revealed two social capital constructs: social networks and social cohesion. The associations of ecometric and mean neighbourhood-level scores of these constructs with self-rated health, weight status and obesity-related behaviours were analysed using multilevel regression analyses, adjusted for key covariates. Analyses using ecometric and mean neighbourhood scores, but not mean neighbourhood scores adjusted for individual scores, yielded similar regression coefficients. Higher levels of social network and social cohesion were not only associated with better self-rated health, lower odds of obesity and higher fruit consumption, but also with prolonged sitting and less transport-related physical activity. Only associations with transport-related physical activity and sedentary behaviours were associated with mean neighbourhood scores adjusted for individual scores. As analyses using ecometric scores generated the same results as using mean neighbourhood scores, but different results when using mean neighbourhood scores adjusted for individual scores, this suggests that the theoretical advantage of the ecometric approach (i.e. teasing out individual and contextual variation) may not be achieved in practice. The different operationalisations of social network and social cohesion were associated with several health outcomes, but the constructs that appeared to represent the contextual variation best were only associated with two of the outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mackenbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lakerveld
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: van Lenthe
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rutter
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Glonti
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Compernolle
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Bourdeaudhuij
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris 13, Bobigny, France.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feuillet
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris 13, Bobigny, France.|Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris 06; Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France.
authors.forename: J-M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Oppert
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice and Elderly Care, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nijpels
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brug
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D009765:Obesity; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D066270:Social Capital; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Ecometrics; SPOTLIGHT; multilevel analysis; social capital