Assessment of the Relationship between Social Capital and Utilization of Health Services among the Elderly in Kerman

Identifying factors affecting the use of health services in the elderly, especially social factors, can be useful for allocating health resources to this growing age group. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between social capital and health services in the elderly in Kerman.

This was a descriptive-analytic study. 400 elderly were selected for participation in the study. Finally, 360 questionnaires were analyzed. To collect the data standard questionnaires of social capital and health service utilization were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software. To analyze the data descriptive, analytical statistics including t-test and one-way ANOVA were used.

The mean age of the elderly was 66.96 (6.99). The average social capital among the elderly was 4.5 ± 2.2. Among the components of social capital, the highest mean is related to cohesion and social support (2.09 ± 3.1). The mean social capital was significantly different in terms of referral for treatment (P = 0.02), place of referral (P = 0.001), and referral frequency (P = 0.002). However, the average social capital was not significant in terms of hospitalization (P = 0.33).

Findings of this study showed that higher social capital is associated with referral for treatment and fewer treatment attendance. Therefore, higher health of the elderly and lower health costs can be achieved through improving access to health services and rationalizing the seeking health service behavior.