Exploring social capital and health nexus among older Adults: findings from the Survey on health, ageing and retirement in Europe (SHARE)

The relationship between social capital and health is capturing the attention of an increasing number of researchers and a growing body of literature is flourishing. Researchers agrees that social capital is the synthesis of three different point of view: the first defines social capital as those characteristics of social communities, such as networks of individuals and families together with norms, that create externalities for the society as a whole; the second defines social capital as a variety of different entities which all consist of some aspect of social structure and which facilitate certain actions of actors within the structure; the third includes the social and political environment that shapes social structure and allows for the development of norms. Theoretical research distinguish between bonding and bridging social capital. The first refers to the relations that an individual has within his/her "inner circle'' whereas the second relates to ties with people outside the closest circle but belonging to the same socio-economic group. Following the approach of the World Health Organization, health should be considered as having a dynamic nature, and should be taken into consideration in the context of life, as the ability to fulfill actions or to carry out a certain role in society. Since individual social network is endogenous to health, we correct this bias by introducing aggregate social capital variable at nuts 3 level. The aim of the paper is to investigate the effects of bridging and bonding social capital on health of people aged 60 or more in seven European countries, using multinomial and logit models. The data used are from the 4th wave of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which for the first time collects detailed information at European level on individual's social network. Health conditions are measured through perceived health status, chronic morbidity, functional limitations, self care activity restrictions (ADLs) and instrumental activity restrictions (IADLs).