UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

The different effects of neighbourhood and individual social capital on health-compromising behaviours in women during pregnancy: a multi-level analysis

Tofani, AA; Lamarca, GDEA; Sheiham, A; Vettore, MV; (2015) The different effects of neighbourhood and individual social capital on health-compromising behaviours in women during pregnancy: a multi-level analysis. BMC Public Health , 15 , Article 890. 10.1186/s12889-015-2213-4. Green open access

[thumbnail of The different effects of neighbourhood and individual social capital on health-compromising behaviours in women during pregnancy: a multi-level analysis.pdf]
Preview
Text
The different effects of neighbourhood and individual social capital on health-compromising behaviours in women during pregnancy: a multi-level analysis.pdf

Download (557kB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study assessed clustering of three health-compromising behaviours and explored the association of neighbourhood and individual social capital with simultaneous health-compromising behaviours and patterns of those behaviours in women in the first trimester of pregnancy (baseline) and during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy (follow-up). METHODS: A longitudinal study was conducted on a representative sample of women recruited in antenatal care units grouped in 46 neighbourhoods from Brazil. Neighbourhood-level measures (social capital and socioeconomic status), individual social capital (social support and social networks) and socio-demographic variables were collected at baseline. Smoking, alcohol consumption and inadequate diet were assessed at baseline and follow-up. Clustering was assessed using an observed to expected ratio method. The association of contextual and individual social capital with the health-compromising behaviours outcomes was analyzed through multilevel multivariate regression models. RESULTS: Clustering of the three health-compromising behaviours as well as of smoking and alcohol consumption were identified at both baseline and follow-up periods. Neighbourhood social capital did not influence the occurrence of simultaneous health-compromising behaviours. More health-compromising behaviours in both periods was inversely associated with low levels of individual social capital. Low individual social capital predicted smoking during whole pregnancy, while high individual social capital increased the likelihood of stopping smoking and improving diet during pregnancy. Maintaining an inadequate diet during pregnancy was influenced by low individual and neighbourhood social capital. CONCLUSIONS: Three health-compromising behaviours are relatively common and cluster in Brazilian women throughout pregnancy. Low individual social capital significantly predicted simultaneous health-compromising behaviours and patterns of smoking and inadequate diet during pregnancy while low neighbourhood social capital was only relevant for inadequate diet. These findings suggest that interventions focusing on reducing multiple behaviours should be part of antenatal care throughout pregnancy. Individual and contextual social resources should be considered when planning the interventions.

Type: Article
Title: The different effects of neighbourhood and individual social capital on health-compromising behaviours in women during pregnancy: a multi-level analysis
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-015-2213-4
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2213-4
Additional information: © 2015 Tofani et al. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
UCL classification: UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1473302
Downloads since deposit
90Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item