Evidence map›Paper›PMID 16597324›Full record

ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2006

Social capital and health: does egalitarianism matter? A literature review.

M Kamrul Islam, Juan Merlo, Ichiro Kawachi, Martin Lindström, Ulf-G Gerdtham

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal for equity in health, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 156 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
156citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

156 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  5. Social capital and health care access: a systematic review.Medical care research and review : MCRR · 2009
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  8. Bridging success in the labour market: does continuity of general practitioners' care matter for individuals with common mental disorders?The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026
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  14. Do institutions matter for citizens' health status? Empirical evidence from Italy.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025
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96 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

M Kamrul IslamDepartment of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö University Hospital, SE-205 02 Malmö, Sweden. Kamrul.Islam@med.lu.se
Juan Merlo
Ichiro Kawachi
Martin Lindström
Ulf-G Gerdtham

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to critically review the notion of social capital and review empirical literature on the association between social capital and health across countries. The methodology used for the review includes a systematic search on electronic databases for peer-reviewed published literature. We categorize studies according to level of analysis (single and multilevel) and examine whether studies reveal a significant health impact of individual and area level social capital. We compare the study conclusions according to the country's degrees of economic egalitarianism. Regardless of study design, our findings indicate that a positive association (fixed effect) exists between social capital and better health irrespective of countries degree of egalitarianism. However, we find that the between-area variance (random effect) in health tends to be lower in more egalitarian countries than in less egalitarian countries. Our tentative conclusion is that an association between social capital and health at the individual level is robust with respect to the degree of egalitarianism within a country. Area level or contextual social capital may be less salient in egalitarian countries in explaining health differences across places.

Identifiers

PMID16597324
PMCPMC1524772

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.