Study protocol: SWING – social capital and well-being in neighborhoods in Ghent

Background: Investing in social capital has been put forth as a potential lever for policy action to tackle health inequity. Notwithstanding, empirical evidence that supports social capital's role in the existence of health inequity is limited and inconclusive. Furthermore, social capital literature experiences important challenges with regard to (1) the level on which social capital is measured and analyzed; (2) the measurement of the concept in line with its multidimensional nature; and (3) the cross-cultural validity of social capital measurements. The Social capital and Well-being In Neighborhoods in Ghent (SWING) study is designed to meet these challenges. The collected data can be used to investigate the distribution of health problems and the association between social capital, health and well-being, both at the individual and at the neighborhood level. The main goals of the SWING study are (1) to develop a coherent multilevel dataset of indicators on individual and neighborhood social capital and well-being that contains independent indicators of neighborhood social capital at a low level of aggregation and (2) to measure social capital as a multidimensional concept. The current article describes the background and design of the SWING study. Methods/Design: The SWING study started in 2011 and data were collected in three cross-sectional waves: the first in 2011, the second in 2012, and the third in 2013. Data collection took place in 142 neighborhoods (census tract level) in the city of Ghent (Flanders, Belgium). Multiple methods of data collection were used within each wave, including: (1) a standardized questionnaire, largely administered face-to-face interviews for neighborhood inhabitants (N = 2,730); (2) face-to-face interviews with key informants using a standardized questionnaire (N = 2,531); and (3) an observation checklist completed by the interviewers (N = 2,730 in total). The gathered data are complemented by data available within administrative data services. Discussion: The opportunities and ambitions of the SWING study are discussed, together with the limitations of the database

Neighborhood differences in social capital in Ghent (Belgium) : a multilevel approach

Background: Little research has focused on the spatial distribution of social capital, despite social capital's rising popularity in health research and policy. This study examines the neighborhood differences in social capital and the determinants that explain these differences. Methods: Five components of neighborhood social capital are identified by means of factor and reliability analyses using data collected in the cross-sectional SWING study from 762 inhabitants in 42 neighbourhoods in the city of Ghent (Belgium). Neighborhood differences in social capital are explored using hierarchical linear models with cross-level interactions. Results: Significant neighborhood differences are found for social cohesion, informal social control and social support, but not for social leverage and generalized trust. Our findings suggest that neighborhood social capital depends on both characteristics of individuals living in the neighborhood (attachment to neighborhood) and characteristics of the neighborhood itself (deprivation and residential turnover). Our analysis further shows that neighborhood deprivation reinforces the negative effect of declining neighborhood attachment on social cohesion and informal social control. Conclusions: This study foregrounds the importance of contextual effects in encouraging neighborhood social capital. Given the importance of neighborhood-level characteristics, it can be anticipated social capital promoting initiatives are likely to be more effective when tailored to specific areas. Second, our analyses show that not all forms of social capital are influenced by contextual factors to the same extent, implying that changes in neighborhood characteristics are conducive to, say, trust while leaving social support unaffected. Finally, our analysis has demonstrated that complex interrelationships between individual-and neighborhood-level variables exist, which are often overlooked in current work

Sociaal kapitaal en gezondheid

Het begrip sociaal kapitaal werd al uitvoerig behandeld in de basistekst ‘Netwerken, vertrouwen en wederkerigheid. Over de complexiteit van het concept sociaal kapitaal’ (Welzijnsgids-Noden, Relatiepatronen, Afl.75 dec.2009, Buf.1-36). Deze bijdrage richt zich op de rol van sociaal kapitaal als determinant van gezondheid en welzijn. In de internationale literatuur is de invloed – zowel de positieve als de negatieve invloed – van sociaal kapitaal op gezondheid regelmatig aangehaald. Dit artikel geeft aan de hand van een historisch kader weer dat de aandacht voor de sociale determinanten van gezondheid geen nieuw verschijnsel is. Nadien wordt beschreven hoe verschillende componenten van sociaal kapitaal zowel op micro- als op macroniveau met gezondheid en welzijn in verband worden gebracht. Ten slotte wordt dieper ingegaan op drie dimensies van sociaal kapitaal, namelijk bonding, bridging en linking sociaal kapitaal, en hun invloed op gezondheid. Maar eerst en vooral staan we kort stil bij de betekenis en kenmerken van het begrip sociaal kapitaal

Onderzoeksrapport 'Gezondheidsprofiel gedetineerden'

Het onderzoeksproject ‘Gezondheidsprofiel van gedetineerden’ heeft als doel het gezondheidsprofiel bij gedetineerden in Vlaamse en Brusselse gevangenissen kwantitatief te beschrijven. Hiertoe is bij een representatieve steekproef van 817 gedetineerden in 12 geselecteerde gevangenissen informatie verzameld over hun gezondheid, gezondheidsgedrag en gezondheidsdeterminanten. De verzamelde gegevens illustreren dat gedetineerden voor de meeste gezondheidsproblemen en gezondheidsgedragingen slechter scoren dan de algemene populatie

A multilevel perspective on the health effect of social capital : evidence for the relative importance of individual social capital over neighborhood social capital

Employing a multilevel perspective on the health effects of social capital, this study analyzes how individual and neighborhood differences in self-rated health in Ghent (Belgium), relate to individual and collective social mechanisms, when taking demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals into account. This study estimates the health effects of social trust, informal social control and disorder at the neighborhood level and social support and network size at the individual level, using indicators indebted to both the normative and resource-based approaches to social capital. Instead of the mere aggregation of individual indicators of social capital, this study uses the key informant technique as a methodologically superior measurement of neighborhood social capital, which combined with a multilevel analysis strategy, allows to disentangle the health effects of individual and neighborhood social capital. The analysis highlights the health benefits of individual social capital, i.e., individual social support and network size. The study indicates that controlling for individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics reduces the effect of the neighborhood-level counterparts and the neighborhood characteristics social trust and neighborhood disorder have significant, but small health effects. In its effects on self-rated health, social capital operates on the individual level, rather than the neighborhood level