The role of neighborhood social capital on health and health inequality in rural and urban China

Pre-COVID-19 cognitive social capital and peri-COVID-19 depression: A prospective cohort study on the contextual moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, 2016–2020

Social capital could protect mental health. We examined whether the COVID-19 context and province-level COVID-19 situation altered the longitudinal association between cognitive social capital (generalized trust, trust in neighbors, trust in local government officials, and reciprocity) and depression. Results from multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models showed that trust in neighbors, trust in local government officials, and reciprocity were more crucial in longitudinally reducing depression in 2020 than in 2018. Also, as compared with provinces where the COVID-19 situation was less poor, trust in local government officials in provinces with a worse COVID-19 situation in 2018 was more crucial in reducing depression in 2020. Therefore, cognitive social capital should be taken into account for pandemic preparedness and mental health resilience.

The Relationship between Neighborhood Social Capital and the Health of Chinese Urban Elderly: An Analysis Based on CHARLS2018 Data

There is growing interest in the relationship between neighborhood social capital and the health of urban older people, but existing research still falls short in exploring the relationship between the two. Based on 2018 CHARLS data, this paper quantitatively examines the association between neighborhood social capital and the self-rated health of urban older people. The study found that, after controlling for a series of variables, both increased social interaction and increased frequency of social interaction significantly improved urban older people's self-rated health. To implement the Health China strategy and improve the health of urban older people, further attention should be paid to the role of neighborhood social capital, creating a harmonious environment for neighborhood interaction and promoting the cultivation of neighborhood social capital.

Neighborhood health effects on the physical health of the elderly: Evidence from the CHRLS 2018

Background

There are more than 26 million elderly people in China, and due to the Health China strategy proposed in 2020, “Elderly Health” has become an important topic of concern for all sectors of society. Neighborhoods provide important social relationships. However, Chinese researchers have not extensively explored the impact of these relationships on the physical health of the elderly.

Methods

Based on the data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we constructed a comprehensive research framework integrating ordinary least square (OLS) regression, heterogeneity analysis, IV-2SLS, robustness testing, and Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) mediating effect analysis, which can be used to thoroughly examine neighborhood health effects (NHEs) in relation to the physical health of the elderly.

Results

The OLS results showed that the NHEs (B = 0.4689, p < 0.01) had a positive influence on the physical health of the elderly, and were lower than the NHEs estimated by IV-2SLS (B = 0.5018, p < 0.01). The mediating effects of social networks and social relationships were analyzed using KHB, and both the total (B = 0.6056, p < 0.01) and indirect (B = 0.0800, p < 0.01) effects on neighborhood health were significant, with the total effect being 10 times larger than the direct effect and 13.24% of the total effect coming from the mediating variable.

Conclusions

Firstly, the NHEs positively influence the physical health of elderly persons, but there are heterogeneous differences. Secondly, the IV-2SLS estimation results suggest that not controlling for endogeneity leads to underestimation of the role of the NHEs. Thirdly, using the county-level NHEs, self-rated health, and health changes to replace variables, and grouping by smokers (small sample) and never smoked (large sample), the influence of the NHEs on the physical health of the elderly is robust. Finally, social networks and social relationships are important transmission mechanisms of the NHEs when it comes to the physical health of the elderly.

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NHEs are robust and significant in the Chinese social background.

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Community (county) level NHEs are positive for the positive health of the elderly.

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NHEs have a positive impact on self-rated health and health changes in older adults.

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Endogenous issues would underestimate the role of NHEs.

•Social networks and social relationships are transmission mechanisms of the NHEs.