Examining Social Health and Its Related Factors among Iranian Medical students

Introduction: Given the importance of providing social health for students, this study was conducted to investigate the social health and its related factors among Iranian students of medical sciences.

Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016. The population of the study included students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (Sari, Iran). Using random sampling, we selected 352 students. Eligible students for the study were those who (i) consented to participate, (ii) agreed to participate fully, and (iii) had no physical illnesses. Exclusion from the study was due to any event that prevented them from participating in the study (e.g., the death of a family member). Then, standardized questionnaire of “Keyes's Social Well-being” and demographic questionnaire were used in this study to collect data. The data were tabulated and analyzed by means of SPSS 13.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), which was used to calculate descriptive and inferential (Two-way ANOVA) indices.

Results: In this study, 202 women and 150 men participated with the mean age of 23.14 (2.41). The mean score of social health of students was average 92.99 (7.54). About 75.4% of participants had average levels of social health. Maximum and minimum levels of social health were related to contribution 20.64 (3.65) and social coherence 15.86 (2.12) respectively. There were no differences in the overall social health score of the students in terms of gender; however, regarding marital status, place of residence, father's education, and mother's education, there was a significant difference among students.

Conclusion: Given the importance of social health, it is necessary to have proper planning such as providing for the requirements of stable marriages for students, good place of residence to improve the quality of life and enhance their satisfaction with it.