[Happiness among Iranians: findings from the Iranian Health Perception Survey [IHPS]]

Objective[s]: As part of a study on health perception among Iranian people, the happiness with affected factors was assessed

Methods: This was a population-based study. A random sample of individuals aged between 18 and 65 years were entered into the study. Respondents were asked to rate a 5-point happiness scale indicating their own present happiness status. The data were analyzed descriptively. In addition logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between independent variables and happiness

Results: In all 27,883 individuals took part in the study. The mean age of respondents was 32.7 [SD=11.8] years. Overall 39.3% rated their happiness as 'neither much/nor low', 35.4% as 'much" and 3% as "Not at all". The findings showed that in addition to some demographic variables such as employment and income, the self-rated health was the most significant contributing factor to happiness [OR=7.82, 95% CI=5.32-11.48, P<0.0001]

Conclusion: The findings suggest that improving daily living conditions might help to improve happiness among the Iranian population

[Iranian's percpectives about health importance]

Objective[s]: As part of a study on health perception among Iranian people, the importance of health was assessed

Methods: This was a population-based study. A random sample of individuals aged between 18 and 65 years were entered into the study. Respondents were asked to rate a 5-point scale indicating how value health in their life. The data were analyzed descriptively. In addition logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between independent variables and the importance of health

Results: In all 27,883 individuals took part in the study. The mean age of respondents was 32.7 [SD=11.8] years. The results indicated that 70 percent of the respondents valued the health very or very much important. For there analysis of the data showd that males and females valued the health similarly but age and education had significant contribution to people's perceptions

Conclusion: The findings of this study intoduce a noteworthy outlook of health importance among Iraninas and could be useful in characterizing public cognitions of health and provide essential basis for program development and health related interventions