Social capital, income inequality, and mortality.

American journal of public health - Tập 87 Số 9 - Trang 1491-1498 - 1997
Ichiro Kawachi1, Bruce P. Kennedy, Kimberly Lochner, Deborah Prothrow‐Stith
1Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Tóm tắt

OBJECTIVES: Recent studies have demonstrated that income inequality is related to mortality rates. It was hypothesized, in this study, that income inequality is related to reduction in social cohesion and that disinvestment in social capital is in turn associated with increased mortality. METHODS: In this cross-sectional ecologic study based on data from 39 states, social capital was measured by weighted responses to two items from the General Social Survey: per capita density of membership in voluntary groups in each state and level of social trust, as gauged by the proportion of residents in each state who believed that people could be trusted. Age-standardized total and cause-specific mortality rates in 1990 were obtained for each state. RESULTS: Income inequality was strongly correlated with both per capita group membership (r = -.46) and lack of social trust (r = .76). In turn, both social trust and group membership were associated with total mortality, as well as rates of death from coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, and infant mortality. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the notion that income inequality leads to increased mortality via disinvestment in social capital.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.1080/00324728.1979.10410449

Wilkinson RG. Income and mortality. In: Wilkinson RG, ed. Class and Health: Research and Longitudinal Data. London, England: Tavistock; 1986.

10.1111/1467-9566.ep11340405

10.1136/bmj.304.6820.165

10.1016/0014-2921(87)90030-4

10.1136/bmj.312.7037.1004

10.1136/bmj.312.7037.999

Atkinson AB, Micklewright J. Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1992.

Kawachi I, Levine S, Miller SM, Lasch K, Amick B. Income Inequality and Life Expectancy: Theory, Research, and Policy. Boston, Mass: Health Institute, New England Medical Center; 1994. Society and Health Working Paper 94-2.

Wilkinson RG, 1994, Daedalus., 123, 61

Putnam RD, 1993, Am Prospect., 35

Putnam RD. Making Democracy Work. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 1993.

Coleman JS. The Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1990:300-321.

10.1126/science.3399889

10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112674

10.1136/jech.50.3.245

10.1353/jod.1995.0002

Davis JA, Smith TW. General Social Survey Cumulative File. Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan, Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research; 1972 through 1993.

10.2307/2095669

10.1097/00001648-199509000-00005

Income and Poverty [CD-ROM]. Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census; 1993.

10.2105/AJPH.83.9.1289

Pedhazur EJ. Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston; 1973.

de Tocqueville A. Democracy in America. New York, NY: Vintage Books; 1945.

10.2307/2111684

Wilson WJ. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner-City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press; 1987.

10.2105/AJPH.84.5.825

10.2105/AJPH.84.5.819

10.2105/AJPH.84.5.830

10.1017/S0265052500001345

Bourdieu P. The forms of capital. In: Richardson JG, ed. The Handbook of Theory: Research for the Sociology of Education. New York, NY: Greenwood Press; 1986:241-258.

10.1177/109019819402100206

Cottrell LS Jr. The competent community. In: Kaplan BH, Wilson RN, Leighton AH, eds. Further Explorations in Social Psychiatry. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1976:195-209.

10.1002/1520-6629(198601)14:1<6::AID-JCOP2290140103>3.0.CO;2-I

10.1007/BF00922689

Walzer M, 1991, Dissent., 293

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

American journal of public health

Tập 87 Số 9

1491-1498

Thông tin tác giả