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Social capital and health in China: exploring the mediating role of lifestyle

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, November 2017
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Title
Social capital and health in China: exploring the mediating role of lifestyle
Published in
BMC Public Health, November 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4883-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Xindong Xue, Mingmei Cheng

Abstract

Although social capital as a key determinant of health has been well established in various studies, little is known about how lifestyle factors mediate this relationship. Understanding the cross-relationships between social capital, health, and lifestyle factors is important if health promotion policies are to be effective. The purpose of this study is to explore whether different dimensions of social capital and lifestyle factors are related, and whether lifestyle factors mediate the association between social capital and self-rated health (SRH) and psychological well-being (PWB) in China. This study used nationally representative data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (n = 28,916). The data reported on three dimensions of individual-level social capital: social trust, social relationship and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership. Health was assessed using SRH and PWB. Five lifestyle indicators were recorded: healthy diet, physical activity, smoking, sleeping, and non-overweight status. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations between social capital and lifestyle factors, and whether there was a mediating role of lifestyle. Odds ratios relating health status to social capital were reported before and after adjustment for lifestyle factors. Mediation analysis was then used to calculate the total, direct and indirect effects of social capital on SRH and PWB. The results show that social trust was significantly associated with all five lifestyle factors. Social relationship was significantly associated with four of the five: healthy diet, physical activity, sleeping and non-overweight. CCP membership was only significantly associated with two lifestyle factors: physical activity and non-overweight. Social trust and social relationship were significantly related to both SRH and PWB. CCP membership was only significantly related to SRH. Mediation analysis found modest evidence that lifestyle factors influenced the relationship between all three types of social capital and SRH. In contrast, only social trust and social relationship, but not CCP membership, were mediated by lifestyle factors with respect to PWB. This study is the first to explore the mediating role of lifestyle factors in the relationship between social capital and health in China. The overall findings suggest that lifestyle factors modestly mediate the association between social capital and health. The degree of mediating effect varies across different dimensions of social capital. Social capital-based health promotion policies would benefit from taking lifestyle factors into account.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 88 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 88 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Doctoral Student 10 11%
Student > Bachelor 10 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 10%
Student > Master 9 10%
Researcher 6 7%
Other 12 14%
Unknown 32 36%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 13 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 12 14%
Psychology 9 10%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 5 6%
Medicine and Dentistry 4 5%
Other 9 10%
Unknown 36 41%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 December 2017.
All research outputs
#14,961,684
of 23,012,811 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#10,995
of 14,993 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#195,842
of 330,771 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#123
of 167 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,012,811 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,993 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.0. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 330,771 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 167 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 22nd percentile – i.e., 22% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.