ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2019
Trust and all-cause mortality: a multilevel study of US General Social Survey data (1978-2010).
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed.
- The longitudinal associations of material security and belief in God in young Americans.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Community Social Capital and All-cause Mortality in Japan: Findings From the Adachi Cohort Study.Journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Social trust and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: lessons in planning for future pandemics using data from the general social survey.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Conceptualizing and Measuring Trust, Mistrust, and Distrust: Implications for Advancing Health Equity and Building Trustworthiness.Annual review of public health · 2024Review
- Trust in adolescence and depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood: findings from a Swedish cohort.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Trust and Psychosomatic Complaints in Adolescence: Findings From a Swedish Cohort Study.International journal of public health · 2023Article
- Racial disparity in ART adherence is closed in states with high social trust: Results from the Medical Monitoring Project (MMP), 2015.Journal of community psychology · 2022Article
- Did States With More Social Capital Pre-pandemic Offer Mental Health Protection During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Cross-Sectional View.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Association between social trust and the risk of cardiovascular disease in older adults in Korea: a nationwide retrospective cohort study.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Association of community level social trust and reciprocity with mortality: a retrospective cohort study.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Association between Social Trust and Metabolic Syndrome in a Previously Healthy Population-A Longitudinal Cohort Study in South Korea.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Should Trust Be Stressed? General Trust and Proactive Coping as Buffers to Perceived Stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Comparing the association between social capital and self-rated health in poor and affluent nations.SSM - population health · 2019Article
- A retrospective assessment of metropolitan religious adherence rate, individual and neighborhood social capital and their impact on women's health.BMC public health · 2019Article
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3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWithin public health research, generalised trust has been considered an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality for over two decades. However, there are no population-based studies that have scrutinised both contextual-level and individual-level effects of generalised trust on all-cause mortality. We, therefore, aim to investigate such associations by using pooled nationally representative US General Social Survey (GSS) data linked to the National Death Register (NDI).
methodsThe combined GSS-NDI data from the USA have 90 contextual units. Our sample consisted of 25 270 respondents from 1972 to 2010, with 6424 recorded deaths by 2014. We used multilevel parametric Weibull survival models reporting HRs and 95% CI (credible intervals for Bayesian analysis). Individual-level and contextual-level generalised trust were the exposures of interest; covariates included age, race, gender, marital status, education and household income.
resultsWe found a robust, significant impact of individual-level and contextual-level trust on mortality (HR=0.92, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.97; and HR=0.96, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.98, respectively). There were no discernible gender differences. Neither did we observe any significant cross-level interactions.
conclusionHigh levels of individual and contextual generalised trust protect against mortality, even after considering numerous individual and aggregated socioeconomic conditions. Its robustness at both levels hints at the importance of psychosocial mechanisms, as well as a trustworthy environment. Declining trust levels across the USA should be of concern; decision makers should consider direct and indirect effects of policy on trust with the view to halting this decline.
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