Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates

Geographic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease are often attributed to sociodemographic differences across communities or unequal access to opportunity structures whose use serves as protective mechanisms. Yet limited research considers the social dynamics between residents that are enabled by these...

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Main Authors: Adam R. Roth, Ashley F. Railey, Siyun Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2025-04-01
Series:Socius
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251327540
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author Adam R. Roth
Ashley F. Railey
Siyun Peng
author_facet Adam R. Roth
Ashley F. Railey
Siyun Peng
author_sort Adam R. Roth
collection DOAJ
description Geographic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease are often attributed to sociodemographic differences across communities or unequal access to opportunity structures whose use serves as protective mechanisms. Yet limited research considers the social dynamics between residents that are enabled by these opportunity structures. The authors adopt a population-level approach to evaluate how ethnoracial diversity and opportunity structures function jointly to facilitate the development of bridging social capital (i.e., mixing of dissimilar people) which is hypothesized to predict Alzhiemer’s disease mortality rates. Upon analyzing Alzheimer’s disease mortality records from 2,469 U.S. counties, the authors find that counties whose sociodemographic composition and opportunity structures combine to encourage bridging capital potential exhibit lower mortality rates than counties with fewer such opportunities. These findings consistently appear in environments whose composition and structure are conducive to social mixing (i.e., workhoods and civic organizations) but inconsistently in environments that are less conducive to social mixing (i.e., residential neighborhoods). The findings highlight the importance of structural factors that create opportunities for social capital.
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spelling doaj-art-4dca8414fbe44b34a07b8b81d47823ec2025-08-20T01:55:41ZengSAGE PublishingSocius2378-02312025-04-011110.1177/23780231251327540Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality RatesAdam R. Roth0Ashley F. Railey1Siyun Peng2Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USAIndiana University, Bloomington, IN, USAUniversity of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USAGeographic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease are often attributed to sociodemographic differences across communities or unequal access to opportunity structures whose use serves as protective mechanisms. Yet limited research considers the social dynamics between residents that are enabled by these opportunity structures. The authors adopt a population-level approach to evaluate how ethnoracial diversity and opportunity structures function jointly to facilitate the development of bridging social capital (i.e., mixing of dissimilar people) which is hypothesized to predict Alzhiemer’s disease mortality rates. Upon analyzing Alzheimer’s disease mortality records from 2,469 U.S. counties, the authors find that counties whose sociodemographic composition and opportunity structures combine to encourage bridging capital potential exhibit lower mortality rates than counties with fewer such opportunities. These findings consistently appear in environments whose composition and structure are conducive to social mixing (i.e., workhoods and civic organizations) but inconsistently in environments that are less conducive to social mixing (i.e., residential neighborhoods). The findings highlight the importance of structural factors that create opportunities for social capital.https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251327540
spellingShingle Adam R. Roth
Ashley F. Railey
Siyun Peng
Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
Socius
title Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
title_full Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
title_fullStr Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
title_full_unstemmed Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
title_short Bridging Social Capital Potential and Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality Rates
title_sort bridging social capital potential and alzheimer s disease mortality rates
url https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251327540
work_keys_str_mv AT adamrroth bridgingsocialcapitalpotentialandalzheimersdiseasemortalityrates
AT ashleyfrailey bridgingsocialcapitalpotentialandalzheimersdiseasemortalityrates
AT siyunpeng bridgingsocialcapitalpotentialandalzheimersdiseasemortalityrates