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Abstract
Objective To examine the association between social capital and the health of male and female left-behind older adults in rural China.
Study design This cross-sectional study among the left-behind older adults aged 60 and older and with all their children working outside of Hubei, Shaanxi and Guangdong provinces in China was conducted in 2017–2018. A total of 1106 questionnaires were collected (participation rate=100.0%), and questionnaires from 1016 participants were used (effective rate=91.9%).
Methods An ordinary least squares model was used to evaluate the association between social capital and health. Social capital included family trust, friend/neighbour trust, stranger trust, social participation, and network size and density. Health outcomes included basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADL and IADL) and depression.
Results Elevated family trust, friend/neighbour trust, stranger trust, high-level participation and middle-level network density were associated with reduced depression (b=−3.23, p<0.001; b=−0.41, p<0.001; b=−0.76, p<0.01; b=−1.04, p<0.05; b=−0.74, p<0.05, respectively). High-level participation and network density were also associated with elevated BADL (b=0.16, p<0.05; b=0.24, p<0.05, respectively). Elevated family trust (b=−2.86, p<0.05 in men; b=−3.86, p<0.001 in women), stranger trust (b=−0.68, p<0.05 in men; b=−0.80, p<0.05 in women) and high-level participation (b=−0.92, p<0.05 in men; b=−1.22, p<0.01 in women) were associated with reduced depression in both sexes. By contrast, elevated friend/neighbour trust was associated with reduced depression (b=−0.56, p<0.001) in women, high-level participation was associated with elevated BADL (b=0.19, p<0.05) and IADL (b=0.43, p<0.05) in men, and high-level network density was associated with elevated BADL (b=0.44, p<0.05) and IADL (b=0.57, p<0.05) and reduced depression (b=−1.05, p<0.05) in women.
Conclusions Social capital is closely related to left-behind older adults’ health in rural China. More attention should be paid to increasing the stock of social capital in this special population, with a particular focus on the sex disparity.
- social capital
- health
- left-behind older adults
- sex disparity
- rural China
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Footnotes
Contributors JJ and YK designed the study. YC and YK collected the data. JJ, YC and YK all wrote, revised and reviewed the manuscript.
Funding This study is supported by the National Social Science Fund: Researches on the quality of life of rural left-behind older adults in the setting of aging (No 16BRK014).
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval We declare that this study complied with ethical standards. Wuhan University of Science and Technology grants ethical approval for this study.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement No data are available.