ABSTRACT
Background: The novelty of the study is to measure self-perceived social health of Iranians as one of the main dimensions of health
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in all provinces of Iran in September 2014 with 10500 participants to measure self-perceived social health on a scale from 33 to 165 arranged in three areas; family, friends and relatives, and community. Area of "family" was measure in a range from 6 to 30; area of "friends and relatives" was from 9 to 45; and area of "community" was from 19 to 95. The psychometrics of scale was examined in separate previous study
Results: From a total of 10500 participants, 10244 fulfilled questionnaire [Response rate= 97.6%]. 49.2% of participants were male. Mean of the total social health score was 99.91; area of "family" was 22; area of "friends and relatives" was 27.6; and area of "community" was 51.2. The main factors negatively influences on social health were low house size, unemployment, being divorced or widow and being at the age of 18-30. There was no significant relationship between social health score and educational level
Conclusion: It is magnificently attained that standardized social health rate in the present study was 3.9% lower than the rate has been estimated in comparison to similar previously conducted study in three big cities of Iran, two years earlier. Area of "community" is also the main accountant for this drop. To continue monitoring the social health of Iranians, we recommend conducting the next rounds every 3-5 years
ABSTRACT
Background: Social health is important to be assessed as a dimension of health. In this study we tried to determine areas and sub-areas of children social health indicators
Methods: In a structured way, we reviewed the main social health databases and documents since 1995, both Iranian and international were reviewed to develop conceptual framework and to extract indicators
Results: According to reviewed documents, indicators of social health were categorized into four groups. In first category indicators are related to system capacities such as facilities and institutions, financial, and human resources. Social system functions are classified as group two. The main subcategories of social health functions are policy development and enforcement, social marketing, community organizing, coalition building and collaboration, education, case management, screening, surveillance, and investigation. In group three, named as social factors, the main determined areas are life skills, early child development, family functioning, and social networks. Indicators related to social outcomes are categorized as group four. The main related positive social outcomes are social wellbeing and happiness and the main negative outcomes are physical health outcome [injuries, infectious diseases, etc.], mental health outcomes, development and learning outcomes, risky behaviors, academic outcomes, and legal outcomes
Conclusion: Our recommended model develops a conceptual framework for child social health indicators. This framework and extracted indicators can be used to compare different populations to assess inequity for evidence based policy making and to implement proper interventions
ABSTRACT
Social health as third dimension of health, along with physical and mental health, has drawn more attention in recent years among policy makers and health system managers. No other study, according to our review, has documented measuring individual-level social health in Iran. In response to this need, our study tends to assess Iranians self-rated social health through conducting a survey in 3 cities of Iran. We conducted a survey using cross sectional method in three cities of Iran [Tehran, Isfahan, Urmia] included people more than 18 years old. We use a random sample size of 800 people. The scale provides a total score of social health and three sub-scores. Total score was calculated by summing all 33 items, so the range was between 33 to 165, considering that higher score indicating better social health. Psychometric parameters of scale were acceptable. To interpret scores, respondents were categorized into five ordered groups as quintiles for amount of social health. To compare social health scores in different demographic groups multiple linear regression was employed to interpret association between demographic variables and social health score. From a pool of 800 persons, 794 [99%] agreed to participate and filled out the questionnaire completely. The mean of self-rated social health score was 105.0 [95% confidence interval, 103.8 to 106.2]. 50% of participants had medium level of social health. Social health score was higher for those who live in Uremia as a small city in comparison with big cities-Tehran and Isfahan [p<0.001] and was lower for unemployed people [p=0.029]. There was no association between social health score and other factors such as sex, age and educational level [p>0.05]. This study may be considered as the first step in evidence-based policy-making in the field of social health in Iran. Certainly, it is necessary to conduct more studies to measure social health and its determinants in a nation-wide approach