TY - JOUR

T1 - Neighborhood social capital is associated with participation in health checks of a general population

T2 - a multilevel analysis of a population-based lifestyle intervention- the Inter99 study

AU - Bender, Anne Mette Flenstrup

AU - Kawachi, Ichiro

AU - Jørgensen, Torben

AU - Pisinger, Charlotta

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - BACKGROUND: Participation in population-based preventive health check has declined over the past decades. More research is needed to determine factors enhancing participation. The objective of this study was to examine the association between two measures of neighborhood level social capital on participation in the health check phase of a population-based lifestyle intervention.METHODS: The study population comprised 12,568 residents of 73 Danish neighborhoods in the intervention group of a large population-based lifestyle intervention study - the Inter99. Two measures of social capital were applied; informal socializing and voting turnout.RESULTS: In a multilevel analysis only adjusting for age and sex, a higher level of neighborhood social capital was associated with higher probability of participating in the health check. Inclusion of both individual socioeconomic position and neighborhood deprivation in the model attenuated the coefficients for informal socializing, while voting turnout became non-significant.CONCLUSION: Higher level of neighborhood social capital was associated with higher probability of participating in the health check phase of a population-based lifestyle intervention. Most of the association between neighborhood social capital and participation in preventive health checks can be explained by differences in individual socioeconomic position and level of neighborhood deprivation. Nonetheless, there seems to be some residual association between social capital and health check participation, suggesting that activating social relations in the community may be an avenue for boosting participation rates in population-based health checks.TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (registration no. NCT00289237 ).

AB - BACKGROUND: Participation in population-based preventive health check has declined over the past decades. More research is needed to determine factors enhancing participation. The objective of this study was to examine the association between two measures of neighborhood level social capital on participation in the health check phase of a population-based lifestyle intervention.METHODS: The study population comprised 12,568 residents of 73 Danish neighborhoods in the intervention group of a large population-based lifestyle intervention study - the Inter99. Two measures of social capital were applied; informal socializing and voting turnout.RESULTS: In a multilevel analysis only adjusting for age and sex, a higher level of neighborhood social capital was associated with higher probability of participating in the health check. Inclusion of both individual socioeconomic position and neighborhood deprivation in the model attenuated the coefficients for informal socializing, while voting turnout became non-significant.CONCLUSION: Higher level of neighborhood social capital was associated with higher probability of participating in the health check phase of a population-based lifestyle intervention. Most of the association between neighborhood social capital and participation in preventive health checks can be explained by differences in individual socioeconomic position and level of neighborhood deprivation. Nonetheless, there seems to be some residual association between social capital and health check participation, suggesting that activating social relations in the community may be an avenue for boosting participation rates in population-based health checks.TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (registration no. NCT00289237 ).

KW - Adult

KW - Attitude to Health

KW - Denmark

KW - Female

KW - Health Behavior

KW - Health Status

KW - Humans

KW - Life Style

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Multilevel Analysis

KW - Residence Characteristics

KW - Social Capital

KW - Socioeconomic Factors

U2 - 10.1186/s12889-015-2042-5

DO - 10.1186/s12889-015-2042-5

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26197982

VL - 15

SP - 1

EP - 9

JO - BMC Public Health

JF - BMC Public Health

SN - 1471-2458

M1 - 694

ER -