Social Epidemiology

Social Epidemiology
Author: Lisa F. Berkman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2000-03-09
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780195083316
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This book shows the important links between social conditions and health and begins to describe the processes through which these health inequalities may be generated. It reviews a range of methodologies that could be used by health researchers in this field and proposes innovative future research directions.

Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health

Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health
Author: Ichiro Kawachi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2013-07-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1461474647
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This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital “translates” across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.

Three Studies of Social Capital and Population Health

Three Studies of Social Capital and Population Health
Author: Eunice Yang Park
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:
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This dissertation is composed of three studies of social capital and its association with population health in the United States. It contributes to important ongoing discussions in the fields of social capital and population health. Chapter 1 outlines an overview of the dissertation. Chapter 2 reviews background and literature.The first study (Chapter 3) aims to establish the relationship between cognitive social capital, measured by one's sense of community, and mental health. Findings using the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) data collected between 2014 and 2016 indicate that a positive sense of community is associated with a reduced risk of experiencing depression, anxiety, and stress. The second study (Chapter 4) aims to extend the findings from the first study (positive association between one's sense of community and mental health) to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from 2020 to 2021. It also aims to test whether a different cognitive social capital measure (perceived social support) is associated with mental health during the pandemic. There are two main findings. First, the association between one's sense of community and mental health symptoms change during the COVID-19 pandemic, from a negative association in spring 2020 to a positive association in summer 2021. Second, the association between one's perceived social support and mental health symptoms are consistent across two time points, winter 2021 and summer 2021, although the association weakens over time. The third study (Chapter 5) aims to reconsider how social capital is conceptualized and measured in a social determinants of health model in two main parts: a critical review and an evaluation. In the critical review, various social capital measures that are commonly used in population health research are reviewed. In evaluating the social capital construct in the County Health Rankings Model, I compare two measures and investigate the consequences of the two different measures on actions inspired. Findings suggest that choosing social capital measures is a complicated process and therefore requires multiple considerations such as construct validity, universality, and reliability. In Conclusion (Chapter 6), I present a summary of results, theoretical and empirical limitations that remain, and directions for future.

Social Capital and Health

Social Capital and Health
Author: Ichiro Kawachi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0387713107
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As interest in social capital has grown over the past decade—particularly in public health —so has the lack of consensus on exactly what it is and what makes it worth studying. Ichiro Kawachi, a widely respected leader in the field, and 21 contributors (including physicians, economists, and public health experts) discuss the theoretical origins of social capital, the strengths and limitations of current methodologies of measuring it, and salient examples of social capital concepts informing public health practice. Among the highlights: Measurement methods: survey, sociometric, ethnographic, experimental The relationship between social capital and physical health and health behaviors: smoking, substance abuse, physical activity, sexual activity Social capital and mental health: early findings Social capital and the aging community Social capital and disaster preparedness Social Capital and Health is certain to inspire a new generation of research on this topic, and will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in public health, health behavior, and social epidemiology.

Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health

Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health
Author: Ichiro Kawachi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2013-07-07
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781461474654
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This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital “translates” across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.

Healthy Ties

Healthy Ties
Author: Markku T. Hyyppä
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2010-09-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 904819606X
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Social capital is a widely acknowledged candidate for implementing beneficial democratic processes and promoting public health. Healthy ties. Social capital, population health and survival traces the path from the conceptualization to the implementation of social capital. To provide empirical proof of the effects of social capital on public health is a serious challenge and the main focus of the book. In the Nordic countries, personal identification codes linking data from various sources, nation-wide population registers, nationally representative and re-tested health surveys, and the long tradition of epidemiology submit to serve well the research into social capital and public health. Up-to-date longitudinal data on social capital and health outcomes are carefully described and reviewed in this book. In Finland, the Swedish-speaking minority is very long-lived and has better health as compared with the Finnish-speaking majority.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961
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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2003-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309133181
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The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Does 'Community Social Capital' Contribute to Population Health?

Does 'Community Social Capital' Contribute to Population Health?
Author: Sherman Folland
Publisher:
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:
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Robert Putnam showed that a social capital index, created as a weighted sum of 14 variables chosen to describe the civic degree of sociability and community-mindedness, is correlated with many community outcomes, such as education, child well-being, crime, and the total mortality rate. Although correlation does not establish causation, we can find that in a large number of studies this index, a selection of its elements, or similar measures register as significantly correlated with health variables, virtually always in a direction consistent with the hypothesis that social capital improves health. The potential benefit of this relationship is substantial, especially if it proves to be robust to differences in time and place, statistical contexts, and ultimately if the relation can be supported to be causal. The aim of this paper is to subject the social capital and health hypothesis to an expanded set of rigorous tests, which, by surviving, it becomes stronger or, by failing, its weaknesses are better revealed.The present paper seeks to extend this body of research by a combination of study characteristics that are each relatively unusual in social capital and health research. Though causality cannot be established by these tests, the work shows that the association of social capital with health is quite robust when challenged in the following ways: 1) Seven different health measures are studied, including five mortality rates; 2) The 48 contiguous states are observed at six points in time covering the years from 1978 to 1998 over four year intervals, thus forming a panel; 3) The multivariate tests feature economic variables from the production of health literature; and 4) A statistical method (instrumental variables) is applied to account for the possibility that omitted variables are confounding the social capital estimates. The results and the discussion find cases for which the social capital and health hypothesis performs only weakly, but, on the whole, the hypothesis is remarkably robust to these variations.

U.S. Health in International Perspective

U.S. Health in International Perspective
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2013-04-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309264146
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The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.