Development of a scale for evaluating Satoyama socio-natural capital as a health a resource

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24660048
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Community health/Gerontological nurisng
• Research Institution: Nagano College of Nursing
• Principal Investigator: TAGAYA Akira 長野県看護大学, 看護学部, 特任教授 (70117951)
• Research Collaborator: NASU Yutaka 長野県看護大学, 看護学部, 看護学科名誉教授 (50020839) ; KITAYAMA Akio 長野県看護大学, 看護学部, 看護学科教授 (70214822) ; MIYAMA Tomoyo 長野県看護大学, 看護学部, 看護学科名誉教授 (70060746)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 里山 / 健康資源 / 尺度開発 / ソーシャルキャピタル / 中山間地域 / Satoyama

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We attempted to develop a scale to evaluate Satoyama as a health resource.
A questionnaire developed from fieldwork and interviews was distributed to 510 households in 26 rural communities. Analyses of 242 responses yielded 6 subscales consisting of 27 items (bondage with people, attachment to community, blessings of nature, sociopolitical concerns about community, structural strength of community, and uneasy human relationship)
A multiple regression analysis of FS-8 health summary scores by the Satoyama subscale scores (together with sex and age) indicated that a higher structural strength of community, a higher attachment to community, and less uneasy human relationship contribute to a better mental health condition. The blessings of nature did not show a significant direct contribution to the summary health scores but the correlation with other variables indicated its contribution to decrease negative effects of very deep human relationships on integrity of the community.

Free Research Field

看護学、人類学、統計学