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Evidence Base Home » Social Cohesion and Social Integration » Group membership political participation and social networking are significantly associated with human health outcomes

Articles in Group membership, political participation, and social networking are significantly associated with human health outcomes.

  • For one standard deviation increase in group membership in a community, mortality decreased by 83.2 individuals per 100,000.

    Kreuter MW, Lezin N. 2002. Social capital theory: Implications for community-based health promotion. In Emerging Theories in Health Promotion Practice and Research. Eds DiClemente RJ, Crosby RA, Kegler MC. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

  • People involved in electoral participation were 22% less likely to report poor/fair health.

    Kim D, Kawachi I. 2006. A multilevel analysis of key forms of community- and individual- level social capital as predictors of self-rated health in th e United States. Journal of Urban Health 83(5):813-826.

  • In a study about neighborhood environment, if political engagement was low, people had 52% higher odds of reporting poor health.

    Cummins S, Stafford M, MacIntyre S, Marmot M, Ellaway A. 2005. Neighborhood environment and its associations with self-rated health: evidence from Scotland and England. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59:207-213.

  • People with coronary artery calcification (which is a potential marker of early atherosclerosis) were 80% more likely to live in social isolation (single or widowed).

    Kop WJ, Berman DS, Gransar H, Wong ND, Miranda-Peats R, White MD, Shin M, Bruce M, Krantz DS, Rozanski A. 2005. Social network and coronary artery calcification in asymptomatic individuals. Psychosom Med 67(3):343-52.

  • People living in states with high voting inequality were 43% more likely to report fair/poor self-rated health.

    Blakely TA, Kennedy BP, Kawachi I. 2001. Socioeconomic inequality in voting participation and self-rated health. Am J Public Health 91(1):99-104.

  • Participating in some types of social activities may reduce mortality or cognitive function impairment in the elderly: participating in a religious group reduced the risk of mortality for women and participating in political groups reduced the risk of impaired cognitive function for men.

    Hsu HC. 2007. Does social participation by the elderly reduce mortality and cognitive impairment? Aging & Mental Health 11(6): 699-707.

  • A higher level of civic engagement through ties to community groups was associated with increase exposure to health-promoting messages.

    Viswanath K, Steele WR, Finnegan JR. 2006. Social capital and health: Civic engagement, community size, and recall of health messages. American Journal Of Public Health 96(8): 1456-1461.