2023 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 12-24
[Objective] The purpose of this study was to characterize the of the social capital (SC) and the perceived quality of the neighborhood environment of community health volunteers (CHVs) who are active in the community, and residents living in the same area, and to obtain suggestions for promoting healthy community development.
[Methods] A survey was conducted with CHVs living and working in Region A in 2020 and parents of middle school students (hereafter referred to as “the general public”). The survey included questions on the attributes and health-related SC indicators as the social environment, and a scale measuring the neighborhood environment quality. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients was calculated for the SC and the neighborhood environment quality subscales.
[Results] “Civic participation” aspects of SC were significantly higher among CHVs. CHVs were significantly higher in “availability of services” and “good neighborhood relations” for neighborhood environment quality. In SC and neighborhood environment quality, the general public was weakly correlated with SC’s “civic participation” and “good neighborhood relations”. Moreover SC’s “social cohesion” were weakly correlated with “availability of services”, “good neighborhood relations,” “space for recreation,” and “civic communities”. CHVs were moderately to weakly correlated with SC’s “social cohesion,” “good neighborhood relations,” “space for recreation,” “reciprocity” and “aesthetic look.”
[Conclusion] In order to promote healthy community development, a study was conducted on SC and the quality of the community environment for the general public and CHVs living in the same community. The results suggest that improving the neighborhood environment, such as creating a place where anyone can participate, may lead to the improvement of SC.
