The role of gender in the association of social capital, social support, and economic security with self-rated health among older adults in deprived communities in Beirut Hiam Chemaitelly • Caroline Kanaan • Hind Beydoun • Monique Chaaya • Mona Kanaan • Abla M. Sibai Accepted: 17 September 2012 / Published online: 26 September 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 Abstract Purpose To examine gender variations in the association of self-rated health (SRH) with social capital, social sup- port, and economic security among older adults from three deprived communities in the suburbs of metropolitan Beirut. Methods A population-based cross-sectional study using the Older Adult Component of the Urban Health Survey. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 328 older men and 412 older women aged 60 years and above. SRH was assessed by a single question and treated as a dichot- omous outcome, and several indicators of social capital, social support, and economic security were examined as independent variables. Results Women were significantly more likely to report poor SRH compared to men (37.2 vs. 25.9 %, respectively). Better social capital indicators decreased significantly the odds of poor SRH among both men (OR = 0.76, 95 % CI: 0.65–0.89) and women (OR = 0.71, 95 % CI: 0.62–0.82). Social support was strongly associated with SRH among women (OR = 0.56), but not among men (OR = 0.94). The reverse situation was observed for economic security (OR = 0.57 among men, OR = 0.80 among women). Conclusions In these deprived neighborhoods, social and economic factors may have gender-specific effects on the promotion of well-being among older adults, with social support being more salient to women’s SRH and economic security being more salient to men’s SRH. In health studies among older people, SRH captures not only social and physical health but also broader economic well-being. Keywords Economic security Á Lebanon Á Older people Á Self-rated health Á Social capital Á Social support Abbreviations ADL Activities of daily living CI Confidence interval LP Lebanese pounds OR Odds ratio SD Standard deviation SRH Self-rated health UHS Urban Health Survey Introduction Population aging and the increased number of older people in both developed and developing countries coupled with con- comitant epidemiological changes have led to increased interest in identifying health determinants and inequalities in H. Chemaitelly Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar, Doha, Qatar C. Kanaan Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon H. Beydoun Graduate Program in Public Health, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA M. Chaaya Á A. M. Sibai (&) Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon e-mail: ansibai@aub.edu.lb M. Kanaan Department of Health Sciences, The University of York, Heslington, York, UK 123 Qual Life Res (2013) 22:1371–1379 DOI 10.1007/s11136-012-0273-9