Many of the most common illnesses we suffer are caused or aggravated by poor choices we make about our behaviors — like choosing a poor diet, lack of excercise, smoking and drinking irresponsibly. But what causes people to choose their behaviors unwisely? Some social scientists believe that we are influenced by the "social capital" supplied by our communities. Some communities, they believe, nurture their residents by general attitudes of mutual trust, support and cooperation, while others do not. And this nuturing, or lack of it, affects our choices and, thus, our physical health.

Among our 21 counties, those with a higher proportion reporting that they don't trust their neighbors generally are also those with a higher proportion reporting less favorable health. This supports the idea of "social capital" as being linked to health outcomes. As the graph shows, mistrustful individuals are more likely to report unfavorable physical health, even though the mistrustful people were generally younger (normally, youth is generally associated with more favorable physical health). There may be something about being a mistrustful individual that is bad for health, but the effect may be only on one's self and not on one's community.

Anyone wishing to explore this suject further would find similar data in an article from the August 1999 American Journal of Public Health titled "Social Capital and Self-Rated Health, " by I. Kawachi and others (data and notes from a related online lecture are available). A local initiative carrying a social capital-related mission is that of the GivEm 40 Coalition, whose asset-based approach focuses specifically on youth and was created in response to a related national project by the Search Institute.