Civic participation and self-rated health: a cross-national multi-level analysis using the world value survey

Effect of social capital, social support and social network formation on the quality of life of American adults during COVID-19

This study aims to evaluate the effect of social capital (SC), social support (SS), and social network formation (SNF) on the quality of life of American adults during COVID-19. Using a probability sample of American adults aged 49+, 2370 respondents were selected from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) dataset for analysis using an integrated partial least squares based on structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)-K-fold cross-validation approach. The analysis showed that social capital assessed using civic engagement, social cohesion, socioeconomic status (SES), social support, and social network formation were significantly and positively associated with American adults' quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the results showed that using the PLS-SEM and K-fold cross-validation approach produced a medium predictive power of the overall model, confirming the importance of SC, SS, and SNF in predicting quality of life-outcomes. These findings suggest that efforts to promote the well-being of American adults, especially older adults, during the pandemic should focus on strengthening social capital, social support and social network formation.

Community and Social Context: An Important Social Determinant of Cardiovascular Disease

Disease prevention frameworks and clinical practice guidelines in the United States (US) have traditionally ignored upstream social determinants of health (SDOH), which are critical for reducing disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD)-the leading cause of death in the US. Existing evidence demonstrates a protective effect of social support, social cohesion, and community engagement on overall health and wellbeing. Increasing community and social support is a major objective of the Healthy People 2030 initiative, with special provisions for vulnerable populations. However, to date, existing evidence of the association between community and social context (CSC)-an integral SDOH domain-and CVD has not been reviewed extensively. In particular, the individual and cumulative impact of CSC on CVD risk and the pathways linking CSC to cardiovascular outcomes are not well understood. In this review, we critically appraise current knowledge of the association between CSC and CVD, describe potential pathways linking CSC to CVD, and identify opportunities for evidence-based policy and practice interventions to improve CVD outcomes.

Voting, health and interventions in healthcare settings: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

In democracies, voting is an important action through which citizens engage in the political process. Although elections are only one aspect of political engagement, voting sends a signal of support or dissent for policies that ultimately shape the social determinants of health. Social determinants subsequently influence who votes and who does not. Our objective is to examine the existing research on voting and health and on interventions to increase voter participation through healthcare organizations.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review to examine the existing research on voting, health, and interventions to increase voter participation through healthcare organizations. We carried out a search of the indexed, peer-reviewed literature using Ovid MEDLINE (1946-present), PsychINFO (1806-present), Ebsco CINAHL, Embase (1947-present), Web of Science, ProQuest Sociological Abstracts, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. We limited our search to articles published in English. Titles and abstracts were reviewed, followed by a full-text review of eligible articles and data extraction. Articles were required to focus on the connection between voting and health, or report on interventions that occurred within healthcare organizations that aimed to improve voter engagement.

RESULTS

Our search identified 2041 citations, of which 40 articles met our inclusion criteria. Selected articles dated from 1991-2018 and were conducted primarily in Europe, the USA, and Canada. We identified four interrelated areas explored in the literature: (1) there is a consistency in the association between voting and health; (2) differences in voter participation are associated with health conditions; (3) gaps in voter participation may be associated with electoral outcomes; and (4) interventions in healthcare organizations can increase voter participation.

CONCLUSION

Voting and health are associated, namely people with worse health tend to be less likely to engage in voting. Differences in voter participation due to social, economic, and health inequities have been shown to have large effects on electoral outcomes. Research gaps were identified in the following areas: long-term effects of voting on health, the effects of other forms of democratic engagement on health, and the broader impact that health providers and organizations can have on voting through interventions in their communities.

Depression Fully Mediates the Effect of Multimorbidity on Self-Rated Health for Economically Disadvantaged African American Men but Not Women

Background. Although chronic medical conditions (CMCs), depression, and self-rated health (SRH) are associated, their associations may depend on race, ethnicity, gender, and their intersections. In predominantly White samples, SRH is shown to better reflect the risk of mortality and multimorbidity for men than it is for women, which suggests that poor SRH among women may be caused not only by CMCs, but also by conditions like depression and social relations-a phenomenon known as "the sponge hypothesis." However, little is known about gender differences in the links between multimorbidity, depression, and SRH among African Americans (AAs). Objective. To study whether depression differently mediates the association between multimorbidity and SRH for economically disadvantaged AA men and women. Methods. This survey was conducted in South Los Angeles between 2015 to 2018. A total number of 740 AA older adults (age ≥ 55 years) were enrolled in this study, of which 266 were AA men and 474 were AA women. The independent variable was the number of CMCs. The dependent variable was SRH. Age and socioeconomic status (educational attainment and marital status) were covariates. Depression was the mediator. Gender was the moderator. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. Results. In the pooled sample that included both genders, depression partially mediated the effect of multimorbidity on SRH. In gender specific models, depression fully mediated the effects of multimorbidity on SRH for AA men but not AA women. For AA women but not AA men, social isolation was associated with depression. Conclusion. Gender differences exist in the role of depression as an underlying mechanism behind the effect of multimorbidity on the SRH of economically disadvantaged AA older adults. For AA men, depression may be the reason people with multimorbidity report worse SRH. For AA women, depression is only one of the many reasons individuals with multiple CMCs report poor SRH. Prevention of depression may differently influence the SRH of low-income AA men and women with multimorbidity.