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Residents living in communities with higher civic participation report higher self-rated health

2020; Public Library of Science; Volume: 15; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pone.0241221

1932-6203

Moeko Noguchi‐Shinohara, Kohei Hirako, Hiromasa Tsujiguchi, Tomoya Itatani, Kiyoko Yanagihara, Hikaru Samuta, Hiroyuki Nakamura,

Community Health and Development

It has been shown that community-level social capital may affect residents' health. The present mixed ecological study assesses the evidence for an association between the community-level social capital and the individual level of self-rated health. The Hakui City Health Interview Survey targeted 15,242 people aged 40 years and older from 11 communities. Among them, 6578 residents responded to the questionnaire (response rate, 43.2%). We examined whether the community-level social capital (general trust, norm, and civic participation) was associated with the individual level of self-rated health. Overall, 1919 (29.1%) answers of self-rated poor health were identified. Community-level civic participation was negatively associated with poor self-rated health after adjusting for individual demographic factors, individual social capitals, and community-level economic status, whereas community-level general trust, and norm were not significant. The findings suggest the importance of fostering communities with high civic participation to reduce the poor health status of residents.