Health Inequalities and Social Capital

The study intends to assess the respond of self-reported health to different measures of social capital in Ukraine. For empirical analyses European Social Survey conducted in Ukraine in 2004/2005 and 2006/2007 is used. There are considered four indicators of social capital - religious organizations, trust in other people, level of reciprocity and trust in politicians. Each of social capital variables is measured on both, individual and community level. Since the impact of community social capital might be different for different population groups, there are investigated the relationships between health and social capital for poor people and people with higher education. Finally, because of gender differences in health function, the results are presented for males and females separately. Our main results show that none of the community social capital variables is significantly related to health of men and women. However, each but level of reciprocity individual social capital measure is significantly and positively related to the health of both, men and women.