Research Article The Relationship between Health and Community across Aging Cohorts Julie Norstrand 1 and Keith T. Chan 2 1 Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, McGuinn Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA 2 School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, State University of New York, 135 Western Avenue, Richardson 277, Albany, NY 12222, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Julie Norstrand; norstraj@bc.edu Received 14 January 2014; Revised 15 May 2014; Accepted 15 May 2014; Published 10 June 2014 Academic Editor: Barbara Shukitt-Hale Copyright © 2014 J. Norstrand and K. T. Chan. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Research is needed to examine the connection between older adults and their community as they age. Tis is important as increasing numbers of older adults wish to age in place. Regression models were examined across 3 cohorts testing relationships among social capital indicators (neighborhood trust, neighborhood support, neighborhood cohesion, neighborhood participation, and telephone interaction) with health outcomes (self-rated health, activities of daily living (ADL), and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL)). Results showed that most social capital indicators remained signifcant for all health outcomes into very old age. Development of tools for individual and community interventions to ensure optimal ft between the aging individual and their environment is discussed, along with recommendations for enhancing social work theory and practice. 1. Introduction Interest in age-friendly community and aging-in-place con- cepts has grown over recent years as the majority of older adults wish to remain within the neighborhood in which they have become familiar and emotionally attached to. Social capital has previously been used to capture community connectedness or social glue [1]. Social capital is relevant to aging-in-place as it provides a framework to examine neigh- borhoods’ ft for older adults; this has important implications for adapting neighborhoods to become more age-friendly and ensure opportunity to aging-in-place. Hence, social capital has gained increased attention from both practice and policy makers [2]. Te research has demonstrated a positive relationship between social capital and wide range of health outcomes [3]. In other words, individuals with high social capital are more likely to experience good health. However, most of the research to date has been done on middle-aged adults. It is still not clearly understood how social capital functions in relation to health as adults reach very old age. Te goal of this paper was to elucidate this relationship by examining the association between fve indicators of social capital with three physical health outcomes among adults aged 65 years and older. 1.1. Social Capital. Te use of social capital is increasingly recognized as a means for adapting environments for aging- in-place. As Emlet and Moceri argue, an elder friendly community captures the core features of social capital includ- ing “civic participation, and the nature of social networks and mutuality/reciprocity” [4, p. 2]. Despite the growing interest in social capital, it remains controversial due to its conceptual polysemy. Terefore, it is important to fully clarify how social capital was conceptualized in this study. Four out of the fve social capital indicators used in this study focused on neighborhood (neighborhood trust, neighbor- hood support, neighborhood cohesion, and neighborhood participation), while the ffh measure (telephone interaction) captured community connections beyond the neighborhood. Terefore, social capital in this study should be considered to be primarily a measure of the neighborhood, with the understanding that social connections can stretch beyond physical borders. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Aging Research Volume 2014, Article ID 626097, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/626097