Relationship between Social Capital and Health among Mothers

Health is the base for socio-economic development and is the most important component of social welfare. Women’s health status, particularly, mothers’ health, is more vulnerable than men, in Iranian society. Evidences, resulted from different researches, indicate that health is related to socioeconomic determinants more than medical and nursing interventions. The term of Social Capital is a new concept in social sciences that during a short time, has been populated in literatures of social determinants of health. Social capital is consisting of the individual's participation in collective life and trust between them, which can enhance their human capital. In this article we looked the health as human capital. This study aims to explore relationships between individual measures of social capital and health, among mothers with children under age of 7 who attend the Abdolabad Health Site in south of Tehran. A cross- sectional design was used. 80 randomly samples were selected from mothers who attended to mentioned Health Site to attain preventive health services. Using “Shortened Version of Social Capital Assessment Tool” (SASCAT) we measured two basic dimensions of social capital: structural (group membership, social support and citizenship activities) and cognitive social capital (trust, social harmony, sense of belonging, sense of fairness). “SF-36” health questionnaire was used to measure two main components of health - physical and mental health – and also 8 health subscales: physical functioning(PF), role- limitations due to physical health problems(RP), bodily pain(BP), general health(GH), vitality(VT), social functioning(SF), role limitations due to emotional problems(RE) and mental health(MH). Partial Correlation Coefficient was applied to explore association between social capital and health. The study found low levels of group membership, social support and citizenship among the mothers. The findings indicate that, the study samples show medium scores of cognitive social capital and poor structural social capital. Mother's physical health was better than their mental health. The sample had the highest (best) mean scores for physical functioning (PF) and they showed the lowest (worst) mean scores for role limitations due to emotional problems (RE). Maternal cognitive social capital had statistically positive significant relationships with their physical health (r=0/45, p= 0/000) and also mental health (r=0/37, p= 0/001), but structural social capital had negative association with mental health(r=- 0/26, p= 0/027). In this study, positive relationship between maternal cognitive social capital and their health was notable. We conclude that the quality of human relationships (cognitive social capital) play more effective role than the quantity of them in maternal health....