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How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Why have the effects of COVID-19 been so unevenly geographically distributed in the United States? This paper investigates the role of social capital as a mediating factor for the spread of the virus. Because social capital is associated with greater trust and relationships within a community, it could endow individuals with a greater concern for others, thereby leading to more hygienic practices and social distancing. Using data for over 2,700 US counties, we investigate how social capital explains the level and growth rate of infections. We find that moving a county from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the distribution of social capital would lead to a 18% and 5.7% decline in the cumulative number of infections and deaths, as well as suggestive evidence of a lower spread of the virus. Our results are robust to many demographic characteristics, controls, and alternative measures of social capital.

SUBMITTER: Makridis CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7846018 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

Makridis Christos A CA Wu Cary C

PloS one 20210129 1

Why have the effects of COVID-19 been so unevenly geographically distributed in the United States? This paper investigates the role of social capital as a mediating factor for the spread of the virus. Because social capital is associated with greater trust and relationships within a community, it could endow individuals with a greater concern for others, thereby leading to more hygienic practices and social distancing. Using data for over 2,700 US counties, we investigate how social capital expl ...[more]

PMID: 33513146

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Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has shown a continuously increasing trend with a large variation in the number of COVID-19 deaths across countries. In response, many countries have implemented non pharmaceutical methods of intervention, such as social distancing and lockdowns. This study aims to investigate the relationship of four dimensions of social capital (community attachment, social trust, family bond, and security) and several control variables with COVID-19 deaths.MethodsWe retrieved data from open access databases and a survey. COVID-19 death-related data were collected from the website "Centre for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University". Social capital-related data were collected from a large-scale survey that included web-based and face-to-face surveys covering 100,956 respondents across all regions/provinces/states of 37 countries in 2017. Data regarding population density, number of hospital beds, and population aged 65 or older were retrieved from the World Development Indicators (WDIs). Data on country lockdowns were obtained from the website "National responses to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic". Linear regressions were applied to identify the relationship between social capital and COVID-19 deaths.ResultsWe found that COVID-19 deaths were associated with social capital both positively and negatively. Community attachment and social trust were associated with more COVID-19 deaths, and family bond and security were associated with fewer deaths. COVID-19 deaths were positively associated with population density, ageing population, and interactions between four dimensions of social capital-related factors and the ageing population. Furthermore, the number of hospital beds and early lockdown policy were negatively associated with COVID-19 deaths.ConclusionsThe results indicate that the role of social capital in dynamically evolving threats, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, is not always negative or positive. Therefore, people's behaviour should be changed to support countries' response to the COVID-19 threat.

Project description:BackgroundHealth literacy is crucial for managing pandemics such as COVID-19 and maintaining the health of the population; our goal was to investigate the impact of cultural capital on health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic among community residents and to further examine the mediating role of social capital in the relationship between cultural capital and health literacy.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,600 community residents selected in Chongqing, China using a stratified random sampling method. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey, including sociodemographic characteristics, cultural capital, social capital, and health literacy. Chi-square analysis, one-way ANOVA, t-test, and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the level of health literacy among community residents and the related elements; the structural equation model (SEM) was used to explore the influential mechanisms of health literacy and explore whether social capital acted as a mediator in the relationship between cultural capital and health literacy.ResultsCultural capital, community participation, community trust, reciprocity, and cognitive social capital had a significant positive effect on health literacy. In addition, the results of SEM indicated that cultural capital not only directly influences health literacy (β = 0.383, 95% CI = 0.265-0.648), but also indirectly influences health literacy through three types of social capital (β = 0.175, 95% CI = 0.117-0.465; β = 0.191, 95% CI = 0.111-0.406; β = 0.028, 95% CI = 0.031-0.174); its mediating effect accounting for 50.7% of the overall effect.ConclusionsOur results highlight the empirical link between cultural capital and health literacy, and suggest that social capital mediates this connection. These findings suggest that governments and communities should focus on the construction of community cultural capital and provide residents with better social capital to improve their health literacy to prepare for future pandemics.

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How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

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How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

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