Educational intervention and functional decline among older people: the modifying effects of
social capital
Sammanfattning
Aim: To analyse if social capital modifies the effect of educational intervention of home visitors
on mobility disability. Earlier studies have found that educational intervention of home visitors has a
positive effect of older peoples? functional decline, but how social capital might modify this effect is
still unknown. Methods: We used the Danish Intervention Study on Preventive Home Visits – a
prospective cohort study including 2863 75-year-olds and 1171 80-year-olds in 34 Danish
municipalities – to analyse the modifying effect of different aspects of social capital on the effect of
educational intervention of home visitors on functional decline. The three measures of social capital
(bonding, bridging, and linking) were measured at contextual level. Data was analysed with
multivariate linear regression model using generalised estimating equations to account for repeated
measurements. Results: We found that 80-year-olds living in municipalities with high bonding
(B=0.089, p=0.0279) and high linking (B=0.0929; p=0.0217) had significant better mobility disability in
average at 3-year follow up if their municipality had received intervention. Conclusions: With the
unique design of the Danish Intervention Study on Preventive Home Visits and with theory-based
measures of social capital that distinguish between three aspects of social capital with focus on older
people, this study contributes to the literature about the role of social capital for interventions on
mobility disability.