Characteristics of the seven studies measuring social capital at the ecological level
| Study ref | Setting | Study design | Population | Sample size | Validity | Social capital measure | Mental illness measure | Statistical analysis | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NS, age not specified. Key to type of study: *study published in peer reviewed journal or accepted for publication, †unpublished manuscript, ‡report/book chapter, §PhD thesis. Study design: XS, cross sectional; L, longitudinal; E, ecological. Social capital measure: C, cognitive social capital; S, structural social capital. Mental illness measure: CMD, common mental disorders. Key to methodological limitations: Measurement of social capital—1, secondary analysis of survey questions not originally designed to measure social capital; 2, not all aspects of social capital measured, or combined different aspects of social capital into one score; 3, no information in validity of social capital measure; 4, clusters may not represent respondents’ views of their community. Methodological limitations of study that may bias results—5, testing the relation between social capital and mental illness not a stated objective of the study; 6, sampled from one community type so little variation in social capital scores between individuals; 7, response rate less than 60%. Features of analysis that may bias results—8, no control for confounding by socioeconomic status; 9, hierarchical data structure (individual and community level variables, or clustered data), but only single level modelling used; 10, neighbourhood disorder, violence or psychological resources adjusted for. These variables may be on the causal pathway between social capital and mental illness, thus making the relation non-significant. Key to results: ++, positive association between social capital and mental illness significant at p<0.05; +, positive association between social capital and mental illness not significant at p = 0.05; − −, inverse association between social capital and mental illness significant at p<0.05; −, inverse association between social capital and mental illness not significant at p = 0.05; ., non-significant association, direction of association not known. | |||||||||
| Stafford 200356§ | England, Scotland National sample | XS | 16+ years | 9223 adults from 239 electoral wards/postcode sectors | 2, 4 | C = trust, attachment to neighbourhood, reliance on neighbours for practical help | CMD measured using GHQ12 | Multilevel | C = Trust = + Neighbourhood attachment = + |
| S = participation in organised activities | Help from neighbours = − | ||||||||
| Aggregated to electoral ward level | S = − | ||||||||
| Boydell 200257* | England Urban | E | All ages | Population from two electoral wards | 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 | C = social cohesion | Psychotic: standardised incidence rates of schizophrenia made by clinical teams | Bi-variate | C = − − |
| Aggregated to electoral ward level | |||||||||
| Drukker 200358* | Netherlands Urban | XS | 10–12 years | 576 from 36 neighbourhoods | 2, 3, 7 | C = social cohesion and trust. | Child Health Questionnaire mental illness and behaviour subscales | Multilevel | C = Mental illness = + Behaviour = + |
| Aggregated to neighbourhood level | |||||||||
| Harper 2003† | USA | E | All ages | Total population of 311 metropolitan areas | 1, 2, 3, 4 | S = number of membership organisations per capital | Death rate from suicide | Multilevel | S = Males = + + Females = + |
| Aggregated to metropolitan area level | |||||||||
| Desai 200359* | USA | L | Patients discharged from a veterans’ psychiatric inpatient program (age NS) | 121933 | 1, 3, 4, 8 | Level of community organisational life, engagement in public affairs, community volunteerism, informal sociability, social trust. | Death from suicide within one year of discharge | Multilevel | − − |
| Aggregated to state level | |||||||||
| Rosenheck 200160* | USA Urban | L | Homeless people with severe mental illness (age NS) | 3293 respondents’ from 18 communities | 1, 2, 3 | Thin trust, volunteering, community project involvement, club meetings attended, and proportion of adults who voted Aggregated to county level | CMD and psychotic problems measured using C-DIS-R and PERI. | Multilevel | CMD = + |
| Alcohol and drug problems assessed Addiction Severity Index | Alcohol = + + Drug = + | ||||||||
| Cutrona 200061* | USA | XS | African American women, primary caregiver for a 10–12 year old child (age NS) | 700 women from 31 clusters created from259 block census areas | 2, 3, 4, 10 | C = social cohesion | CMD measured using Mini-MASQ | Multilevel | C = − |
| Aggregated to cluster level | |||||||||