IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i11p3977-d367075.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Capital as a Mediator through the Effect of Education on Depression and Obesity among the Elderly in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yu Xin

    (West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China)

  • Xiaohui Ren

    (West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China)

Abstract

Objectives: Global aging is an increasingly serious problem. The health problems faced by the elderly, such as depression and obesity, require serious consideration. Education, depression and obesity are inextricably linked; for the elderly, education is constant, and the factors which can mediate the relationship between education, depression and obesity are still being discussed by scholars. The mediating effect of social capital is rarely studied. The objective of this study was to assess the mediating role of cognitive social capital and structural social capital, as well as the effect of education on depression and obesity among the elderly using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data. Methods: In total, 4919 respondents were included in the final analysis. Education was measured by years of schooling. Trust and participation were used as measures of cognitive social capital and structural social capital. Depression symptoms and BMI were used as outcomes. Structural equation models were developed to examine the direct and indirect effect of social capital and education on health outcomes. Results: Education was negatively correlated with depression symptom (r = −0.15, p < 0.001), while education was positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.08, p < 0.001). Older adults with a higher education level have higher cognitive social capital (r = 0.11, p < 0.001) and structural social capital (r = 0.20, p < 0.001). Social capital plays a mediatory role. Older adults with higher social capital have a lower risk of depression (cognitive: r = −0.23, p < 0.001; structural: r = −0.03, p < 0.01) but a higher risk of obesity (cognitive: r = 0.06, p < 0.01; structural: r = 0.03, p < 0.01). For depression, the mediating function of cognitive social capital (a1b1= −0.025) is stronger than that of structural social capital (a2b2 = −0.006). While, for obesity, the effects of both cognitive and structural social capital are the same (a1c1 = a2c2 = 0.005). Conclusions: Social capital as a mediator through the effect of education on depression and obesity among the elderly in China. Meanwhile, using the positive effects of social capital to avoid negative effects should also be seriously considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu Xin & Xiaohui Ren, 2020. "Social Capital as a Mediator through the Effect of Education on Depression and Obesity among the Elderly in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-12, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:3977-:d:367075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/3977/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/3977/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Layard, Richard & Chisholm, Dan & Patel, Vikram & Saxena, Shekhar, 2013. "Mental Illness and Unhappiness," IZA Discussion Papers 7620, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. -, 2010. "Modeling public policies in Latin America and the Caribbean," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 2581 edited by Eclac, May.
    3. Caf, . "Latin America 2040," Books, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica, number 497.
    4. Ichida, Yukinobu & Kondo, Katsunori & Hirai, Hiroshi & Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Yoshikawa, Goshu & Murata, Chiyoe, 2009. "Social capital, income inequality and self-rated health in Chita peninsula, Japan: a multilevel analysis of older people in 25 communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 489-499, August.
    5. Mazzonna, Fabrizio, 2014. "The long lasting effects of education on old age health: Evidence of gender differences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 129-138.
    6. Vincens, Natalia & Emmelin, Maria & Stafström, Martin, 2018. "Social capital, income inequality and the social gradient in self-rated health in Latin America: A fixed effects analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 115-122.
    7. Poortinga, Wouter, 2006. "Perceptions of the environment, physical activity, and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2835-2846, December.
    8. Lartey, Stella T. & Si, Lei & Otahal, Petr & de Graaff, Barbara & Boateng, Godfred O. & Biritwum, Richard Berko & Minicuci, Nadia & Kowal, Paul & Magnussen, Costan G. & Palmer, Andrew J., 2020. "Annual transition probabilities of overweight and obesity in older adults: Evidence from World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    9. Costa-Font, Joan & Mas, Núria, 2016. "‘Globesity’? The effects of globalization on obesity and caloric intake," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 121-132.
    10. Landstedt, Evelina & Almquist, Ylva B. & Eriksson, Malin & Hammarström, Anne, 2016. "Disentangling the directions of associations between structural social capital and mental health: Longitudinal analyses of gender, civic engagement and depressive symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 135-143.
    11. Małgorzata Lipowska & Ha Truong Thi Khanh & Mariusz Lipowski & Joanna Różycka-Tran & Mariola Bidzan & Thu Tran Ha, 2019. "The Body as an Object of Stigmatization in Cultures of Guilt and Shame: A Polish–Vietnamese Comparison," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-17, August.
    12. repec:lic:licosd:41519 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emma Motrico & Jose A. Salinas-Perez & Maria Luisa Rodero-Cosano & Sonia Conejo-Cerón, 2021. "Editors’ Comments on the Special Issue “Social Determinants of Mental Health”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-9, April.
    2. Yuval Paldi & Daniel S. Moran & Orna Baron-Epel & Shiran Bord & Elisheva Benartzi & Riki Tesler, 2021. "Social Capital as a Mediator in the Link between Women’s Participation in Team Sports and Health-Related Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ying Yao & Guanghua Wan & Dongfang Meng, 2019. "Income distribution and health: can polarization explain health outcomes better than inequality?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(4), pages 543-557, June.
    2. Rodgers, Justin & Valuev, Anna V. & Hswen, Yulin & Subramanian, S.V., 2019. "Social capital and physical health: An updated review of the literature for 2007–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Baltica Cabieses & Kate E. Pickett & Helena Tunstall, 2012. "Comparing Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Disability Between Immigrants and the Chilean-Born: Are There Different Stories to Tell?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-30, December.
    4. Meixia Xu & Yifan Wang & Shuxin Yao & Rongju Shi & Long Sun, 2022. "One-Year Prevalence of Perceived Medical Errors or Near Misses and Its Association with Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Medical Professionals: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-9, March.
    5. Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Murata, Yohei & Ichida, Yukinobu & Hirai, Hiroshi & Kawachi, Ichiro & Kondo, Katsunori, 2012. "Place-specific constructs of social capital and their possible associations to health: A Japanese case study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 225-232.
    6. Giuntella, Osea & Rieger, Matthias & Rotunno, Lorenzo, 2020. "Weight gains from trade in foods: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Suzuki, Etsuji & Takao, Soshi & Subramanian, S.V. & Komatsu, Hirokazu & Doi, Hiroyuki & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2010. "Does low workplace social capital have detrimental effect on workers' health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1367-1372, May.
    8. Jonathan K Burns & Andrew Tomita & Amy S Kapadia, 2014. "Income inequality and schizophrenia: Increased schizophrenia incidence in countries with high levels of income inequality," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(2), pages 185-196, March.
    9. Chen, Duan-Rung & Wen, Tzai-Hung, 2010. "Socio-spatial patterns of neighborhood effects on adult obesity in Taiwan: A multi-level model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 823-833, March.
    10. Barış Alpaslan & Julide Yildirim, 2020. "The Missing Link: Are Individuals with More Social Capital in Better Health? Evidence from India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 811-834, August.
    11. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Koomson, Isaac & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim, 2023. "Transport poverty and obesity: The mediating roles of social capital and physical activity," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 155-166.
    12. Salois, Matthew & Balcombe, Kelvin, 2011. "Do Food Stamps Cause Obesity? A Generalised Bayesian Instrumental Variable Approach in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity," MPRA Paper 28745, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "Differences in the effect of social capital on health status between workers and non-workers," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(4), pages 385-400, December.
    14. Inaba, Yoji & Wada, Yuri & Ichida, Yukinobu & Nishikawa, Masashi, 2015. "Which part of community social capital is related to life satisfaction and self-rated health? A multilevel analysis based on a nationwide mail survey in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 169-182.
    15. Tatjana Begerow & Hendrik Jürges, 2022. "Does compulsory schooling affect health? Evidence from ambulatory claims data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(6), pages 953-968, August.
    16. Crespo, Laura & López-Noval, Borja & Mira, Pedro, 2014. "Compulsory schooling, education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 36-46.
    17. Murayama, Hiroshi & Wakui, Tomoko & Arami, Reiko & Sugawara, Ikuko & Yoshie, Satoru, 2012. "Contextual effect of different components of social capital on health in a suburban city of the greater Tokyo area: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2472-2480.
    18. Oshio, Takashi & 小塩, 隆士 & オシオ, タカシ & Urakawa, Kunio, 2011. "Neighborhood Perceptions, Self-rated Health, and Personality Traits: Evidence from Japan," CIS Discussion paper series 531, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    19. Quis, Johanna Sophie & Reif, Simon, 2017. "Health effects of instruction intensity: Evidence from a natural experiment in German high-schools," BERG Working Paper Series 123, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    20. -, 2010. "Observatorio Demográfico de América Latina y el Caribe 2010: Migración interna = Demographic Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean 2010: Internal migration," Observatorio Demográfico de América Latina / Demographic Observatory of Latin America 7126, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:3977-:d:367075. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.