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Social capital, political trust and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study.

Lindström, Martin LU and Mohseni, Mohabbat LU (2009) In Social Science and Medicine 68. p.436-443
Abstract
This study investigates the association between political trust (an aspect of institutional trust) in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and self-reported psychological health, taking generalized (horizontal) trust in other people into account. The 2004 public health survey in Skåne in Southern Sweden is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study that was answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18-80 yielding a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations between political trust and self-reported psychological health adjusting for possible confounders (age, country of origin, education, economic stress and generalized trust in other people i.e. horizontal trust). We found that 13.0% of... (More)
This study investigates the association between political trust (an aspect of institutional trust) in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and self-reported psychological health, taking generalized (horizontal) trust in other people into account. The 2004 public health survey in Skåne in Southern Sweden is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study that was answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18-80 yielding a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations between political trust and self-reported psychological health adjusting for possible confounders (age, country of origin, education, economic stress and generalized trust in other people i.e. horizontal trust). We found that 13.0% of the men and 18.9% of the women reported poor psychological health. A total of 17.3% and 11.6% of the male and female respondents, respectively, reported that they had no trust at all in the national parliament, and another 38.2% and 36.2%, respectively, reported that their political trust was not particularly high. Respondents in younger age groups, born abroad, with high education, high levels of economic stress, low horizontal trust and low political trust had significantly higher levels of self-reported poor psychological health. There was a significant association between low political trust and low horizontal trust. After adjustments for age, country of origin, education and economic stress, the inclusion of horizontal trust reduced the odds ratios of self-reported poor psychological health in the "no political trust at all" category compared to the "very high political trust" category from 1.6 to 1.4 among men and from 1.7 to 1.4 among women. It is concluded that low political trust in the Riksdag seems to be significantly and positively associated with poor mental health. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Social Science and Medicine
volume
68
pages
436 - 443
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000263424600007
  • pmid:19049849
  • scopus:58349084507
ISSN
1873-5347
DOI
10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.11.004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ba9b040f-5974-4e42-aabe-51c3c4f8b04b (old id 1276562)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19049849?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 08:53:49
date last changed
2022-04-23 18:09:58
@article{ba9b040f-5974-4e42-aabe-51c3c4f8b04b,
  abstract     = {{This study investigates the association between political trust (an aspect of institutional trust) in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and self-reported psychological health, taking generalized (horizontal) trust in other people into account. The 2004 public health survey in Skåne in Southern Sweden is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study that was answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18-80 yielding a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations between political trust and self-reported psychological health adjusting for possible confounders (age, country of origin, education, economic stress and generalized trust in other people i.e. horizontal trust). We found that 13.0% of the men and 18.9% of the women reported poor psychological health. A total of 17.3% and 11.6% of the male and female respondents, respectively, reported that they had no trust at all in the national parliament, and another 38.2% and 36.2%, respectively, reported that their political trust was not particularly high. Respondents in younger age groups, born abroad, with high education, high levels of economic stress, low horizontal trust and low political trust had significantly higher levels of self-reported poor psychological health. There was a significant association between low political trust and low horizontal trust. After adjustments for age, country of origin, education and economic stress, the inclusion of horizontal trust reduced the odds ratios of self-reported poor psychological health in the "no political trust at all" category compared to the "very high political trust" category from 1.6 to 1.4 among men and from 1.7 to 1.4 among women. It is concluded that low political trust in the Riksdag seems to be significantly and positively associated with poor mental health.}},
  author       = {{Lindström, Martin and Mohseni, Mohabbat}},
  issn         = {{1873-5347}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{436--443}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Social Science and Medicine}},
  title        = {{Social capital, political trust and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.11.004}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.11.004}},
  volume       = {{68}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}