Civic Engagement, Positive Organizational Sentiment, and Health in Baltimore, Maryland

While the presence of organizations in neighborhoods has been widely studied, studies have generally not considered whether sentiment toward neighborhood organizations might be associated with public health. Neglecting this affective dimension of organizations limits our grasp on the influence of organizations on processes that mitigate or exacerbate health disparities. We used the 2023 Baltimore Area Survey (weighted n = 1,135,389 adults) to assess whether respondents viewed nearby businesses, nearby nonprofits, and local government positively and whether "positive organization sentiment" was associated with better self-reported physical and mental health. Respondents rated their physical and mental health, depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-2), and anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2). We also assessed civic engagement as a complementary but distinct measure from positive organizational sentiment. Population-weighted multivariable linear regression models estimated the relationship between civic and health variables. Positive business sentiment, nonprofit sentiment, local government sentiment, and civic engagement were positively associated with self-rated physical and mental health and negatively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. The largest associations were seen for government sentiment and anxiety (β = -0.31; 95% CI = -0.48, -0.13), government sentiment and depression (β = -0.28; 95% CI = -0.42, -0.13), and business sentiment and anxiety (β = -0.28; 95% CI = -0.45, -0.11). Civic engagement and anxiety were not significantly related. Our results support the hypothesis that civic engagement and organizational sentiment are related to better physical and mental health. The results of this study suggest that fostering citizens' trust in neighborhood civic organizations and ensuring these organizations are perceived as trustworthy may enhance public health and well-being and vice versa.