Measuring Self-perceived Social Health of Iranians; Finding from Iran Social Health Survey

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.