Methods: In 2011, a cross-sectional survey was performed within all 22 districts, by municipality of Tehran, URBAN HEART survey. A questionnaire served as the tool to measure social capital in randomly selected clustered subjects (n=21039) within households. Social capital consisted of two main components, structural and cognitive, and in six categories of participation, voluntary help, sense of community, social network, trust, reciprocity; All were measured in nine layers from close family member to other groups. The responses were based on Likert scale. The total score was calculated through the sum of all factors. Self-perceived oral health was measured by a single question. Descriptive statistics, contingency table, analysis of variance ANOVA, and post-hoc test were used to detect differences. P<0.01 was considered as significant.
Results: The mean age of the study population was 39.1 years (SD:13), 45% were male and 72% were married. Among the respondents, 41% perceived their oral health to be very good or good. The total social capital mean score was 42 (SD:11.9). Respondents with a higher level of social capital revealed a better perception of their oral health (P<0.0001).
Conclusions: Individuals with a higher social capital had a better perception of oral health. This calls for more focus on social capital supports throughout the communities to improve health conditions.