Relationship Between Social Capital And Health Outcome In Rural China

Social capital is a relatively new concept which has attracted significant attention in recent years. Despite increasing acknowledgement that social capital is an important determinant of health, empirical evidence regarding the direction and strength of these linkages in the developing countries is limited and inconclusive. Social capital instrument in this paper comprises individual social capital access, cognitive and structural components. Structural part implies quantity of social relationships and cognitive part means quality of social relationships which includes feeling for support, reciprocity, sharing and trust. Health outcome is measured by self-reported health status and mental health (GHQ-12) . Great changes and rapid economical development have taken place in rural China. Also rural China owns its special cultural background which is totally different from western countries. In order to explore the representation of social capital in rural China, the main influencing factors and the association between social capital and health outcomes including self-reported health status and mental health, this paper reports on a study of four counties in China including Anyue County in Sichuan province, Linquan County in Anhui province, Cao County in Shandong province and Chiping County in Shandong province. Each county selects four towns and each town selects four villages according to the economical development and geographical location. About 1810 households were interviewed. The questionnaire includes both qualitative and quantitative information. Single factor and multi-factor analysis were used to accomplish the research goal.Main results(1) Individual social capital access includes four components which are information support, instrumental support, emotion support and appraisal support.(2) The number of organizations is very small in rural China; villagers seldom take part in social activities and the main reason is that local government does not organize relevant activities.(3) Variables which are significantly related to trust include county, age, annual expenditure, annual income, occupation, life satisfaction, self-reported health status, mental health, illness and frequency of participation in social activities. According to the result, Chiping County has highest trust level while Anyue County has lowest trust level. Higher annual expenditure level and life satisfaction level, better self-reported health status and mental health and higher participation in social activities are related to higher trust.(4) Variables which are significantly associated with self-reported health status comprise number of relatives, number of friends, reciprocity, general trust factor and information support resources. While factors which are remarkably related to mental health include number of relatives, number of friends, frequency of friends' meet, reciprocity, general trust factor, trust, information support resources and lock or unlock the door.(5) Inconsistency is found according to the logistic regression. Frequency of participation in social activities influences self-reported health status, while number of friends' meet and reciprocity affect mental health status.Main suggestions(1) To improve villagers' income;(2) To develop rural occupation training and adult education system;(3) To increase rural public health input improving peasants' health status;(4) To enhance peasants' social security system;(5) To encourage peasants to create non-governmental organizations in order to improve their organization ability and participation opportunity;(6) To organize various and continuing community activities to help form the social network.ConclusionsGreat changes have taken place since the open reform policy. Not only the life, health status but also the idea of rural people have been slowly altered. This research finds social capital in rural China is incomplete, and the influence on health is not obvious. So the government should concern more about rural people's physical and mental health when they institute the policy. Also they can explore how to improve rural people's health through increasing social capital.