Background: Social capital is an important interpersonal organizational resource that may affect health behaviors and seems to be an important factor in chronic diseases. Considering the lack of evidence on this topic, in the present study, we aimed at investigating the association between components of social capital, socioeconomic condition, and controlling Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Iran. M...

This report reviews the relationship between social cohesion and state fragility – focussing on literature from 2010 onwards. The OECD definition and 2013 list of fragile states are used, although it is noted that there are varying definitions of fragility. Similarly, there are several definitions of social cohesion. The two strongest theories of social cohesion in the literature reviewed for t...

Social comparison involves positioning the self relative to others on a vertical or status dimension (ranging from upward to downward comparisons) and a horizontal or solidarity dimension (ranging from contrastive to connective comparisons). Across 3 studies in which 389 undergraduates recorded everyday social comparisons (n = 4,417), downward and connective comparisons were rated as more helpf...

BACKGROUND Recent increases in violent crime may impact a variety of health outcomes in Mexico. We examined relationships between neighbourhood-level violence and smoking behaviours in a cohort of Mexican smokers from 2011 to 2012, and whether neighbourhood-level social cohesion modified these relationships. METHODS Data were analysed from adult smokers and recent ex-smokers who participated ...

Previous research has examined the role of neighborhood social cohesion in physical activity outcomes; however, less is known about this relationship across Latino subgroups. The purpose of our study was to examine the association between neighborhood social cohesion and aerobic leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) among Latino adults and to determine whether these associations differ by Latin...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Greater social cohesion is related to lower rates of coronary heart disease, but its relation to stroke risk is unstudied. This study examined whether neighborhood social cohesion was protective against stroke mortality and incidence. METHODS Data come from 5789 participants (60% female; 62% black; mean age, 74.7 years) in a longitudinal study of chronic diseases in the...

This article traces the way autonomy has become a recognised value in health care in France. In a country that based its social fundamentals on the very idea of solidarity for many years, autonomy has long been considered a foreign 'Anglo-American principle'. Taking the example of the end-of-life debate, the article shows, however, how the use of the French term 'accompagnement' allowed autonom...

POLICY AND institutional quality are to a large extent endogenous. While the truth of this statement is familiar to most development scholars, the implications of it have drawn relatively little empirical attention. Understanding more about this relationship matters, because ‘‘poor institutional quality’’ and ‘‘failure to implement better policies’’ are so frequently identified as the causes of...

Wilkinson's "income inequality and social cohesion" model has emerged as a leading research program in social epidemiology. Public health scholars and activists working toward the elimination of social inequalities in health can find several appealing features in Wilkinson's research. In particular, it provides a sociological alternative to former models that emphasize poverty, health behaviors...