Importance Of Social Health Research Articles

An Assessment of the Social Health of the Residents of Lamerd, Fars Province in 2019

Introduction: Health is considered of utmost importance and can be assessed from various aspects. The social health assessment can be a good basis for planning to improve the general health of the target community. The present study was conducted to investigate the social health of Lamerd residents, a small town in Fars Province. Methods: The present study is descriptive and uses a researcher-made questionnaire as the instrument. The research population of the study is 60319 Lamerd residents over 20 years old in 2016, and a total of 382 people were selected through a cluster and stratified sampling method. To describe social health, central tendency indices, such as mean and the measure dispersion, standard deviation, were used in SPSS version 24. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: In this study, 382 people were studied. Out of this number, 89 percent were male, and 66 percent were single. Most of the respondents belonged to the 30-35 age bracket. The findings showed that the mean social health (3.03) was at an average level. Among the evaluated dimensions of social health, the economic dimension was favorable (3.09). The social trust component was assessed on the social capital index, showing that the institutional trust was low (2.14). On the contrary, interpersonal trust was at a high level (3.14). The social harms indicator was at a high level (3.07), yet physical and mental health were rated as average and low, respectively. Considering life expectancy, the sampling assumed that the life span of the residents has shortened, and on education and literacy, their responses proved a moderately high tendency towards academic promotion and towards studying technical majors. The environmental condition indicator was also rated as unfavorable, and noise, air, and marine pollution were high. Conclusion: Considering the importance of social health, investigating its different aspects through panel designs can be an appropriate analytical instrument for sociologists, pathologists, and health planners to move from unfavorable conditions to an optimal state.

Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Health Capital and the Level of Health Care Expenditure in Poland

Purpose: Considering the importance of social health in the national economy the aim of the article is to diagnose the level of health capital and health expenditure as well as to analyse the impact of expenditure on the level of health capital and to assess the spatial differentiation of their spatial distribution. Approach/Methodology/Design: The analysis was carried out in spatial terms at the NUTS 3 level for the years 2013-2019; the main source of data was the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland. Taxonomic hierarchization methods (model-free) and classification of multi-feature objects were used. As a result, each object has been assigned a synthetic measure-indicator of the level of health capital (HCV) and an indicator of the level of expenses on health (HCM). Findings: There is a statistically significant negative nature of the relationship between the analysed categories. The spatial systems of the analysed measures differed from each other. One of the features most strongly influencing the level of health capital turned out to be the location and distance of a given unit (county) in relation to a larger urban centre, which is the centre of local growth. Practical Implications: The used approach at the local level provides institutions, local government authorities and all other interested units with important information that can be used in planning specific instruments supporting individuals with a deficit level of health capital. Originality/Value: In this paper has been suggested that it is necessary to increase expenditure on health in units with a relatively low level of health capital to deal with inequalities in this area and support local development. Otherwise, local governments that are currently in the worst situation in the future may never even come close to the level of the phenomenon in the most developed areas, which at the same time will constantly distance the others.

Factors associated with depressive episode among first year University students in Serbia

Abstract Background Some findings indicate that university students are at higher risk of depression despite being a socially advantaged population, showing that 15 to 25% of them develop some type of mental disorder during graduation, and depression is one of the most prevalent. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its association with gender, material status, social health, and behavioral factors among university students. Methods The research represents a cross-sectional study conducted at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. The research involved 455 first-year students. The average age of participants was 19.3 years (72.1% girls and 27.9% boys). Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to measure depressive symptoms (cut point for depressive episode ≥10). Additional questions were focused on self-assessed material status, social health, and behavioral factors (smoking and alcohol use). The binary logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between depression and observed independent variables. Results The prevalence of moderate to severe depressive episode among students was 18.0%, with no gender differences. Out of the total, 11.0% of students had suicidal thoughts or thoughts of hurting themselves. Multivariable logistic regression showed that self-assessed poor material status (OR = 2.04; 95%CI: 1.06-3.89), self-assessed poor social health (OR = 8.9; 95%CI:4.87-16.42) and smoking (OR = 2.18; 95%CI: 1.09-4.39) were significant predictors of depression among first-year university students. Conclusions High prevalence of depressive episode among university students call for the action for the promotion of mental health, particularly among those of lower socioeconomic status, and points out the importance of social health and social network in the prevention of mental disorders. Key messages Students on the first year of University should be screened for depressive symptoms. It is important to educate students on how to create a strong support network and to implement intervention programs for improving mental health through fostering healthy lifestyles change.

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.

The Phenomenological Study on the Health and Life of Low-income Seniors who live in Poverty Area in Metropolitan City

Objectives : The elderly in South Korea are the poorest among OECD countries in 2015. The aim of this study was to explore the health and life of the low-income elderly living in vulnerable areas in a metropolitancity. Methods : Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 7 participants from October to November 2015 and analyzed through Colaizzi’s phenomenological methodology. The participants were interviewed for over 60 minutes in each person. Results : 7 categories were identified from 17 subcategories: “My life history: sick body,” “Living with a sick body,” “My poor but precious life,” “A sense of distance from the hospital,” “Narrowed area of my life,” “Thankful for help,” and “The village where I have lived my destiny.” There is a lack of medical accessibility, mobility, and economic independence for low-income seniors. In addition, full-fledged redevelopment comes to them as violence. Conclusions : The health and life of the low-income elderly in vulnerable areas are products of many social factors, reaffirming the importance of social health.

Caregiver profiles in dementia related to quality of life, depression and perseverance time in the European Actifcare study: the importance of social health

ABSTRACTObjectives: To identify caregiver profiles of persons with mild to moderate dementia and to investigate differences between identified caregiver profiles, using baseline data of the international prospective cohort study Actifcare.Methods: A latent class analysis was used to discover different caregiver profiles based on disease related characteristics of 453 persons with dementia and their 453 informal caregivers. These profiles were compared with regard to quality of life (CarerQoL score), depressive symptoms (HADS-D score) and perseverance time.Results: A 5-class model was identified, with the best Bayesian Information Criterion value, significant likelihood ratio test (p < 0.001), high entropy score (0.88) and substantive interpretability. The classes could be differentiated on two axes: (i) caregivers' age, relationship with persons with dementia, severity of dementia, and (ii) tendency towards stress and difficulty adapting to stress. Classes showed significant differences with all dependent variables, and were labelled ‘older low strain’, ‘older intermediate strain’, ‘older high strain’, ‘younger low strain’ and ‘younger high strain’.Conclusion: Differences exist between types of caregivers that explain variability in quality of life, depressive symptoms and perseverance time. Our findings may give direction for tailored interventions for caregivers of persons with dementia, which may improve social health and reduce health care costs.