Social capital and mental health: Results from a cross-sectional study in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between social capital and mental health of the aging people in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Madhabdi municipality and data were collected through face to face interview among the aging people. Mental health was measured by using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Bivariate analysis such as cross tabulation was applied to presentation of the data and chi-square test was applied to test the association between social capital dimensions and mental health. The chi-square test showed that all dimensions of social capital were related to mental health. Binary logistic regression model was applied to measure the effects of social capital on mental health. The results showed that the aging people who had low neighborhood cohesion, low social networks, low norms of reciprocity and low social trust were 1.967 (0.999-3.874), 1.909 (1.015-3.587), 2.302 (1.288-4.113) and 1.705 (.928-3.132) times more likely to say that they have poor mental health status. So, this study reveals that social capital was associated with mental health of the aging people in Bangladesh.