Healthy Ties : Social Capital, Population Health and Survival

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. Well aware of the rule of thumb that minorities do worse than their respective majorities in terms of well-being and health, the author presents this exceptional phenomenon as an excellent area for social capital and public health research. Healthy ties. Social capital, population health and survival should inspire scholars, researchers, teachers and advanced students in social epidemiology and public health, and lead to new interventions in promoting health. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii What Is Social Capital?....Pages 1-7 Definitions and Forms of Social Capital....Pages 9-19 Measuring Social Capital....Pages 21-37 Social Participation....Pages 39-42 How Does Cultural Participation Contribute to Social Capital and Well-Being?....Pages 43-53 Social Trust, Mistrust and Reciprocity....Pages 55-62 Cross-Sectional Studies of Social Capital and Health....Pages 63-74 Prospective Longitudinal Surveys....Pages 75-83 Healthy Communities....Pages 85-94 Social Capital and Health from Cradle to Grave....Pages 95-103 Gendering Social Capital and Population Health....Pages 105-111 Health-Related Behaviors....Pages 113-123 Proposed Biological Mediating Mechanisms....Pages 125-129 Emergent Social Capital....Pages 131-134 Implications and Implementations....Pages 135-142 Back Matter....Pages 143-163