The contextual effects of social capital on health: a cross-national instrumental variable analysis.

ABSTRACT: Past research on the associations between area-level/contextual social capital and health has produced conflicting evidence. However, interpreting this rapidly growing literature is difficult because estimates using conventional regression are prone to major sources of bias including residual confounding and reverse causation. Instrumental variable (IV) analysis can reduce such bias. Using data on up to 167,344 adults in 64 nations in the European and World Values Surveys and applying IV and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, we estimated the contextual effects of country-level social trust on individual self-rated health. We further explored whether these associations varied by gender and individual levels of trust. Using OLS regression, we found higher average country-level trust t

SUBMITTER: Kim D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3400142 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature