Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:30:45.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Individual social capital and health-related quality of life among older rural Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2015

XIAOJIE SUN ,
KUN LIU ,
MARTIN WEBBER  and
LIZHENG SHI
XIAOJIE SUN
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Management and Policy, Shandong University (Laboratory of Health Economics and Policy, National Health and Planning Commission), Jinan, China.
KUN LIU
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Management and Policy, Shandong University (Laboratory of Health Economics and Policy, National Health and Planning Commission), Jinan, China.
MARTIN WEBBER
Affiliation:
International Centre for Mental Health Social Research, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, UK.
LIZHENG SHI*
Affiliation:
Department of Global Health Systems and Development, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Lizheng Shi, Department of Global Health Systems and Development, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 1900, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

No study based on the Resource Generator has explored the association between individual social capital and health-related quality of life among older adults. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the adapted Resource Generator-China, and examine the association between individual social capital measured by the Resource Generator-China and health-related quality of life of older rural-dwelling Chinese people. A field survey including 975 rural-dwelling people aged between 60 and 75 years was conducted in three counties of the Shandong Province of China in 2013. Quality of life was measured by the Chinese version of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36): scores of Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary. Cumulative scale analyses were performed to analyse the homogeneity and reliability of the Resource Generator-China. We constructed generalised linear models by gender to examine the associations of social capital with health-related quality of life. Our findings suggest that the adapted instrument for older rural-dwelling Chinese people can be a reliable and valid measure of access to individual social capital. There were positive associations between individual social capital (total scores and sub-scale scores) and health-related quality of life. Individual social capital had a stronger association with mental health among women than men. Future studies should be improved through a longitudinal design with a larger and randomised sample covering large geographical rural areas in China.

Keywords

social capitalquality of lifeolder peopleruralChina
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , February 2017 , pp. 221 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bian, Y. 2004. Source and functions of urbanites. Social capital: a network approach. Social Sciences in China, 3, 136–46.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1986. The forms of capital. In Richardson, J. G. (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Greenwood Press, New York, 241–58.Google Scholar
Burt, R. S. 1992. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Cai, F., Giles, J., O'Keefe, P. and Wang, D. 2012. The Elderly and Old Age Support in Rural China: Challenges and Prospects. The World Bank, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Campbell, K. E., Marsden, P. V. and Hurlbert, J. S. 1986. Social resources and socioeconomic status. Social Networks, 8, 1, 97–117.Google Scholar
Chemaitelly, H., Kanaan, C., Beydoun, H., Chaaya, M., Kanaan, M. and Sibai, A. M. 2013. The role of gender in the association of social capital, social support, and economic security with self-rated health among older adults in deprived communities in Beirut. Quality of Life Research, 22, 6, 1371–9.Google Scholar
Dutt, K. and Webber, M. 2010. Access to social capital and social support among South East Asian women with severe mental health problems: a cross-sectional survey. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 56, 6, 593–605.Google Scholar
Elgar, F. J., Davis, C. G., Wohl, M. J., Trites, S. J., Zelenski, J. M. and Martin, M. S. 2011. Social capital, health and life satisfaction in 50 countries. Health & Place, 17, 5, 1044–53.Google Scholar
Erickson, B. H. 1996. Culture, class, and connections. American Journal of Sociology, 102, 1, 217–51.Google Scholar
Erickson, B. H. 2003. Social networks: the value of variety. Contexts, 2, 1, 25–31.Google Scholar
Eriksson, M., Ng, N., Weinehall, L. and Emmelin, M. 2011. The importance of gender and conceptualization for understanding the association between collective social capital and health: a multilevel analysis from northern Sweden. Social Science and Medicine, 73, 2, 264–73.Google Scholar
Gaag, M. V. d., Snijders, T. A. B. and Flap, H. D. 2004. Position Generator measures and their relationship to other Social Capital measures. Working Paper, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Groningen and Utrecht University, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Gibney, S. and McGovern, M. 2011. Social support networks and mental health: evidence from share. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 65, Suppl.1, A186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Z. 2002. Socioeconomic status and social support network of the rural elderly and their physical and mental health. Social Sciences in China, 3, 135–48.Google Scholar
Ichida, Y., Kondo, K., Hirai, H., Hanibuchi, T., Yoshikawa, G. and Murata, C. 2009. Social capital, income inequality and self-rated health in Chita peninsula, Japan: a multilevel analysis of older people in 25 communities. Social Science and Medicine, 69, 4, 489–99.Google Scholar
Kawachi, I. and Berkman, L. F. 2001. Social ties and mental health. Journal of Urban Health, 78, 3, 458–67.Google Scholar
Kawachi, I., Kennedy, B. P., Lochner, K. and Prothrow Stith, D. 1997. Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 9, 1491–8.Google Scholar
Kim, D. and Kawachi, I. 2007. US state-level social capital and health-related quality of life: multilevel evidence of main, mediating, and modifying effects. Annals of Epidemiology, 17, 4, 258–69.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T., Kawachi, I., Iwase, T., Suzuki, E. and Takao, S. 2013. Individual-level social capital and self-rated health in Japan: an application of the Resource Generator. Social Science and Medicine, 85, 32–7.Google Scholar
Lam, C. L. K., Tse, E. Y. Y., Gandek, B. and Fong, D. Y. T. 2005. The SF-36 summary scales were valid, reliable, and equivalent in a Chinese population. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 58, 8, 815–22.Google Scholar
Li, C. 2005. Prestige stratification in the contemporary China: occupational prestige measures and socio-economic index. Sociological Research, 2, 74–102.Google Scholar
Li, L., Wang, H. M. and Shen, Y. 2003. Chinese SF-36 Health Survey: translation, cultural adaptation, validation, and normalisation. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57, 4, 259–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liang, Z. Q., Xue, Y. Z. and Jing, Y. L. 2005. Assessing the quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes using SF-36. Modern Preventive Medicine, 32, 2, 98–9.Google Scholar
Lin, N. 1999. Social networks and status attainment. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 467–87.Google Scholar
Lin, N. 2001. Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lin, N. and Dumin, M. 1986. Access to occupations through social ties. Social Networks, 8, 4, 365–85.Google Scholar
Loevinger, J. 1947. A systematic approach to the construction and evaluation of tests of ability. Psychological Monographs, 61, 4.Google Scholar
Lomas, J. 1998. Social capital and health: implications for public health and epidemiology. Social Science and Medicine, 47, 9, 1181–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marsden, P. V. 1987. Core discussion networks of Americans. American Sociological Review, 52, 1, 122–31.Google Scholar
Mokken, R. J. (ed.) 1997. Nonparametric Models for Dichotomous Responses. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Molenaar, I. W. and Sijtsma, K. 2000. User's Polytomous Items Manual. MSP5 for Windows. A Program for Mokken Scale Analysis for. iecProGAMMA, Groningen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Muckenhuber, J., Stronegger, W. J. and Freidl, W. 2013. Social capital affects the health of older people more strongly than that of younger people. Ageing & Society, 33, 5, 853–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murayama, H., Nishi, M., Matsuo, E., Nofuji, Y., Shimizu, Y., Taniguchi, Y., Fujiwara, Y. and Shinkai, S. 2013. Do bonding and bridging social capital affect self-rated health, depressive mood and cognitive decline in older Japanese? A prospective cohort study. Social Science and Medicine, 98, 247–52.Google Scholar
Nilsson, J., Rana, A. K. M. M. and Kabir, Z. N. 2006. Social capital and quality of life in old age – results from a cross-sectional study in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Aging and Health, 18, 3, 419–4.Google Scholar
Nyqvist, F., Forsman, A. K., Giuntoli, G. and Cattan, M. 2013. Social capital as a resource for mental well-being in older people: a systematic review. Aging & Mental Health, 17, 4, 394–410.Google Scholar
Nyqvist, F., Nygard, M. and Steenbeek, W. 2014. Social capital and self-rated health amongst older people in Western Finland and Northern Sweden: a multi-level analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21, 2, 337–47.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Rocco, L., Fumagalli, E. and Suhrcke, M. 2014. From social capital to health – and back. Health Economics, 23, 5, 586–605.Google Scholar
Ruan, D., Zhou, L., Blau, P. M. and Walder, A. G. 1990. A preliminary analysis on social networks among urban residents in Tianjing. Social Sciences in China, 2, 157–76.Google Scholar
Rueda, S. and Artazcoz, L. 2009. Gender inequality in health among elderly people in a combined framework of socioeconomic position, family characteristics and social support. Ageing & Society, 29, 4, 625–47.Google Scholar
StataCorp. 2011. Stata Statistical Software: Release 12. StataCorp LP, College Station, Texas.Google Scholar
Van der Gaag, M. P. J. and Snijders, T. A. B. 2003. A comparison of measures for individual social capital. In Creation and Returns of Social Capital. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Van der Gaag, M. and Snijders, T. A. B. 2005. The Resource Generator: social capital quantification with concrete items. Social Networks, 27, 1, 1–29.Google Scholar
Van der Gaag, M., Snijders, T. A. B. and Flap, H. 2008. Position generator measures and their relationship to other social capital indicators. In Lin, N. and Erickson, B. (eds), Social Capital: An International Research Program. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 25–48.Google Scholar
Van der Linden, W. J. and Hambleton, R. K. 1997. Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, H., Ma, Y., Meng, C., Wei, X., Zhao, Y., Chen, R., Tang, X., Hu, Z. and Qin, X. 2013. A systematical review of social capital and mental health study for Chinese older people. Chinese Journal of Disease Control & Prevention, 17, 4, 336–40.Google Scholar
Wang, R., Wu, C., Zhao, Y., Yan, X., Ma, X., Wu, M., Liu, W., Gu, Z., Zhao, J. and He, J. 2008. Health related quality of life measured by SF-36: a population-based study in Shanghai, China. BMC Public Health, 8, 292.Google Scholar
Webber, M., Corker, E., Hamilton, S., Weeks, C., Pinfold, V., Rose, D., Thornicroft, G. and Henderson, C. 2014. Discrimination against people with severe mental health illness and their access to social capital: findings from the Viewpoint Survey. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 23, 2, 155–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webber, M. P. and Huxley, P. J. 2007. Measuring access to social capital: the validity and reliability of the Resource Generator-UK and its association with common mental disorder. Social Science and Medicine, 65, 3, 481–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webber, M., Huxley, P. and Harris, T. 2011. Social capital and the course of depression: six-month prospective cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 129, 1–3, 149–57.Google Scholar
Wei, P. 2009. Social Capital of Rural Old Adults on Quality of Life: The State of Life of Older Persons in a Poor Community. Economic Science Press, Beijing.Google Scholar
Whitehead, M. and Diderichsen, F. 2001. Social capital and health: tip-toeing through the minefield of evidence. Lancet, 358, 9277, 165–6.Google Scholar
Wu, Y. and Dang, J. 2013. China Report of the Development on Aging Cause. Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing.Google Scholar
Zhang, W. 2011 a. Social network and social capital studies in China in previous 30 years (part one). Jianghai Academic Journal, 2, 104–12.Google Scholar
Zhang, W. 2011 b. Social network and social capital studies in China in previous 30 years (part two). Jianghai Academic Journal, 3, 96–106.Google Scholar
Zigmond, A. S. and Snaith, R. P. 1983. The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 6, 361–70.Google Scholar