Country-Level Investment in Cultural Opportunity Structures. A Potential Source of Health Differences Between 21 European Countries

Abstract

<p>Abstract Individual’s participation in cultural activities may positively affect health<br />through a pathway mediated by social capital. We examine whether country-level<br />investment in cultural opportunity structures was associated with between-country differences<br />in self-rated health and, if so, whether these associations were mediated by<br />citizens’ confidence in societal institutions, i.e., by institutional trust, regarded as a<br />dimension of social capital. For 24,887 respondents in the European Social Survey, 2006,<br />data on self-rated health, institutional trust (individual-level and country-level), and<br />sociodemographic variables were linked with statistics-based country-level data on 10<br />indicators of cultural opportunity structures and mediator variables (gross domestic product<br />(GDP), Gini index, and welfare state regime). Over and above the sociodemographics, six<br />cultural indicators contributed to between-country health differences in logistic multilevel<br />regression analysis: the percentage of arts students, the RC index, the percentage of writers<br />and creative artists of total employment, exports of cultural goods, imports of cultural<br />goods, and the number of feature films produced per capita. Controlling, furthermore, for<br />trust, and country-level mediators, only imports of cultural goods contributed to betweencountry<br />differences in health. No associations with other cultural indicators remained after<br />controlling for GDP or welfare state regime. Institutional trust may partially mediate the<br />significance of cultural investments for self-rated health. However, both cultural investment<br />and trust may be concomitants of general prosperity and welfare policies. Future<br />studies should investigate whether the countries’ welfare policies influence the transformation<br />of cultural investment into institutional trust and which types of indicators best<br />depict associations between investments and health.<br /></p>