Association between social capital and quality of life in the Iranian population: a systematic review

Background and purpose of the study: Nowadays, quality of life is largely associated with social capital and its components such as groups and networks, trust and solidarity, collective action and social cohesion, the present research was conducted to investigate the Relationship of social capital and quality of life in the Iranian population.

The following databases were searched in both English and Persian languages: PubMed, Science Direct, CINAHL, SID, Iran medex, Magiran, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EBSCO and Scopus. Search terms included: social capital, quality of life, Iran. Articles were included if the published between 2010 and 2017 .An investigation of 209 articles initially led to the selection of 20 articles which met the inclusion criteria.

The sample size ranged from 140 to 20,670. In rural communities, cooperation, integration and social participation had the highest impact on the quality of life. Among university students, social relations showed to significant and positive relation with quality of life. Among the elderly, integration and unity showed to be strongly correlated whereas social trust showed a weak correlation with the quality of life.

Social capital is a good predictor of the quality of life in different social classes. Paving the way for the growth of group work in voluntary forums, expansion of interpersonal relations, establishment of public and private organizations, more participation of people and expanding the culture of trust among people can promote the quality of life and social capital.