A Measure of Hope: New Questions for Postpandemic Rebuilding

ABSTRACT

Most commonly, such measures have captured social capital the resources that are rooted in social networks such as social connectedness, civic engagement, norms of reciprocity, and trust in others that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit.1 Recently, health scholars have aggregated individual responses to national survey data to capture area-level attitudes of anti-Black racism, xenophobia, and homophobia to examine their associations with mortality.2-4 Other studies have used aggregate individual data from Google searches and tweets as indicators of prejudicial social environments.5,6 Questions remain about what a population-level measure of hope captures and how it should be applied in the future. [...]hope significantly increased in 2020. According to Riley et al., even before the pandemic levels of hope varied across the country, with some parts of the country experiencing declines in hope. In the past few years, the phrase "deaths of despair" has been used to describe the declines in US life expectancy and increases in deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol use.7 Despair-the absence of hope-has been linked to numerous poor health outcomes and increased mortality. [...]tracking despair has emerged as a barometer of risk of poor mental health, unhealthy behaviors, and preventable mortality.