Is the association between social capital and health robust across Nordic regions? Evidence from a cross‐sectional study of older adults

Nyqvist F, Nygård M. Is the association between social capital and health robust across Nordic regions? Evidence from a cross‐sectional study of older adults The study examined the association between structural and cognitive social capital and self‐rated health among 65‐ and 75‐year‐olds in Västerbotten in Sweden and Österbotten and Pohjanmaa in Finland. Data were retrieved from a cross‐sectional postal questionnaire survey conducted in 2005 and was answered by 3,370 persons, yielding a total response rate of 69 per cent. The association between self‐rated health and interpersonal trust and membership in organisations was tested by logistic regression analysis. The results showed that older adults in Västerbotten in Sweden experienced better self‐rated health than in Finland. Furthermore, interpersonal trust and active membership in organisations were associated with self‐rated health among 65‐ and 75‐year olds even after having controlled for the influence of region. We therefore conclude that the association between social capital and self‐rated health tends to be robust across contextually similar regions, but that further analyses are warranted in order to clarify the nature of this relationship. Key Practitioner Message: ?Health status can be indirectly strengthened through investments in social capital, such as group participation and active networks; ?When working with older adults, more focus needs to be put on how to develop trustful relationships; ?The Nordic welfare state, with its universal and subsidised social and health care services, has an indirect and positive effect on health among older adults.     

The Persistence of High Levels of Living Alone Among Adults with Disabilities in Sweden, 1993–2011

Population Research and Policy Review - This study investigates how the probability to live alone has developed among working age individuals with and without disabilities in Sweden during the...     

Medical diagnosis of dyslexia in a Swedish elite school: A case of “consecrating medicalization”

Based on qualitative data of an upper-secondary school in Sweden’s primary elite community, Djursholm, I propose how medical diagnosis of students as dyslexics contributes to consecrating them by offering a short cut to successful performance, while at the same time reproducing differences between social classes. The study suggests how students that do not score top can be labeled dyslexic and the social and moral consequences of that. I introduce the concept of “consecrating medicalization” in order to discriminate between the effects of medical diagnosis of members of different social classes. In this way, this paper contributes to further examining some key problems in medical sociology and the sociology of elites, by offering a framework of synthesis and integration.     

Does gender ideology explain differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and of men in paid and unpaid work?

Women spend more time doing household work than men, and men spend more time working at paying jobs outside the home than women. But studies also show that there are major differences between countries regarding the degree to which women and men involve themselves in different kinds of labour activity. The main aim of the article is to analyse the significance of gender ideology when studying differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and men in paid and unpaid work. The analysis is based on national random samples from ten OECD countries that were collected within the framework of ISSP 1994. The conclusions are: (a) gender ideology has an impact in all the studied countries on the degree to which women and men involve and engage themselves in labour and (b) gender ideology partially explains the differences between countries regarding women's and men's involvement in paid and unpaid work.     

Disabled people and dirty work

Based on a longitudinal case study of the work offered by a Swedish sheltered work organization that can be regarded as ‘dirty’, in the sense that it stigmatizes those people that do it, in this paper I analyze how ‘dirty work’ can be seen as an important yet so far neglected source of the social construction of disability. Specifically, the aim of the paper is to suggest how an individual can become a ‘disabled person’ by doing dirty work. By working on ‘tainted tasks’ people (irrespective of their mental or physical condition) may come to be regarded and even officially labeled as ‘disabled’, i.e. incapacitated and impaired for any ‘normal’ and ‘clean’ character of work.     

Effects of exercise on health-related quality of life and fear of falling in home-dwelling older women

This randomized, controlled trial evaluated the effects of exercise on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and fear of falling (FoF) among 149 home-dwelling older women. The 12-mo exercise program was intended to reduce the risk of falls and fractures. HRQoL was assessed by the RAND-36 Survey, and FoF, with a visual analog scale, at baseline, 12 mo, and 24 mo. On all RAND-36 scales, the scores indicated better health and well-being. The exercise had hardly any effect on HRQoL; only the general health score improved slightly compared with controls at 12 mo (p = .019), but this gain was lost at 24 mo. FoF decreased in both groups during the intervention with no between-groups difference at 12 or 24 mo. In conclusion, despite beneficial physiological changes, the exercise intervention showed rather limited effects on HRQoL and FoF among relatively high-functioning older women. This modest result may be partly because of insufficient responsiveness of the assessment instruments used.     

Defying interpretation: Dwelling on and delving into metonymy

To defy interpretation, delay sense-making and accommodate a process view, I propose metonymy as an alternative/complement to metaphor in organization studies. By way of three examples I attempt to show how the unpacking of metonymies, i.e. metonymic reading, can delay metaphorical interpretation to allow for the inclusion of alternative views of concrete experience. Thus, although metonymy ultimately yields to metaphor, it seems worthwhile to dwell on and delve into.