The utility of social capital in research on health determinants

Social capital has become a popular subject in the literature on determinan ts of health. The concept of social capital has been used in the sociologic al, political science. and economic development literatures, as well as in the health inequalities literature. Analysis of its use in the health inequ alities literature suggests that each theoretical tradition has conceptuali zed social capital differently. Health researchers have employed a wide ran ge of social capital measures, borrowing from several theoretical tradition s. Given the wide variation in these measures and an apparent lack of consi stent theoretical or empirical justification for their use, conclusions abo ut the likely role of "social capital" on population health may be overstat ed or even misleading. Elements of a research agenda are proposed to furthe r elucidate the potential role of factors currently subsumed under the rubr ic of "social capital."