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Social capital externalities and mortality in Sweden.

Islam, Kamrul LU ; Gerdtham, Ulf LU orcid ; Gullberg, Bo LU ; Lindström, Martin LU and Merlo, Juan LU orcid (2008) In Economics and Human Biology 6(1). p.19-42
Abstract
We conceptualize social capital as an aggregate factor affecting health production and analyze the effect of community social capital (CSC) externalities on individual mortality risk in Sweden. The study was based on a random sample from the adult Swedish population of approximately 95,000 individuals who were followed up for 4-21 years. Two municipality-level variables - registered election participation rate and registered crime rate - were used to be a proxy for CSC. The impact of CSC on mortality was estimated with an extended Cox model, controlling for the initial health status and a number of individual characteristics. The results indicate that both proxies of CSC were associated with individual risk from all-cause mortality for... (More)
We conceptualize social capital as an aggregate factor affecting health production and analyze the effect of community social capital (CSC) externalities on individual mortality risk in Sweden. The study was based on a random sample from the adult Swedish population of approximately 95,000 individuals who were followed up for 4-21 years. Two municipality-level variables - registered election participation rate and registered crime rate - were used to be a proxy for CSC. The impact of CSC on mortality was estimated with an extended Cox model, controlling for the initial health status and a number of individual characteristics. The results indicate that both proxies of CSC were associated with individual risk from all-cause mortality for males older than 65+ (p=0.013 and p=0.008) but not for females. A higher election participation rate negatively and significantly associated with the mortality risk from cancer for males (p=0.007), and may also have exerted protective associations for cardiovascular mortality (p=0.134) and deaths due to "suicide" (p=0.186) or "other external causes" (p=0.055). Similar associations were observed for the crime rate variable. The findings were robust to alternative specifications examined in the sensitivity analysis. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Economics and Human Biology
volume
6
issue
1
pages
19 - 42
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:18280227
  • wos:000254594800002
  • scopus:39149100616
  • pmid:18280227
ISSN
1873-6130
DOI
10.1016/j.ehb.2007.09.004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
108fcc8f-5f7b-4a84-95de-012f2a62533b (old id 1041849)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18280227?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 08:55:47
date last changed
2022-02-28 05:54:43
@article{108fcc8f-5f7b-4a84-95de-012f2a62533b,
  abstract     = {{We conceptualize social capital as an aggregate factor affecting health production and analyze the effect of community social capital (CSC) externalities on individual mortality risk in Sweden. The study was based on a random sample from the adult Swedish population of approximately 95,000 individuals who were followed up for 4-21 years. Two municipality-level variables - registered election participation rate and registered crime rate - were used to be a proxy for CSC. The impact of CSC on mortality was estimated with an extended Cox model, controlling for the initial health status and a number of individual characteristics. The results indicate that both proxies of CSC were associated with individual risk from all-cause mortality for males older than 65+ (p=0.013 and p=0.008) but not for females. A higher election participation rate negatively and significantly associated with the mortality risk from cancer for males (p=0.007), and may also have exerted protective associations for cardiovascular mortality (p=0.134) and deaths due to "suicide" (p=0.186) or "other external causes" (p=0.055). Similar associations were observed for the crime rate variable. The findings were robust to alternative specifications examined in the sensitivity analysis.}},
  author       = {{Islam, Kamrul and Gerdtham, Ulf and Gullberg, Bo and Lindström, Martin and Merlo, Juan}},
  issn         = {{1873-6130}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{19--42}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Economics and Human Biology}},
  title        = {{Social capital externalities and mortality in Sweden.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2007.09.004}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ehb.2007.09.004}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}