Determining Dimensions of Iranians’ Individual Social Health: A Qualitative Approach

Background: Social health is important to be assessed as a dimension of health. The aim of study was to determine domains and sub-domains of individual social health of Iranians.Methods: This study was carried out with a qualitative approach, using thematic content analysis. Twenty five experts participated in interviews, using individual semi-structured interviews between November 2010 and June 2011.This data supported with strong search.Results: Two main areas extracted from these interviews including social support and social function. The social support domain contained seventeen sub-areas, including social support at the time of disease; disability; daily life issues, etc. And the social function as second domain contained twelve sub-areas, including: financial aids to others; emotionally aids to others; participating in social groups, etc.Conclusion: We developed a conceptual framework for social health in the individual level in Iranian population. It makes preparations for providing a valid and reliable measurement scale for social health in next studies and evidence-based policy-making

Monitoring Social Well-Being in Iran

The main aim of this study was to design a system for measuring and monitoring social well-being in Iran, utilizing a conceptual model and choosing contextually specific domains and indicators. A number of different approaches in defining and measuring social well-being exist. Some of these measuring systems use a descriptive approach and employ sets of indicators, which cover topics of concern but lack any explicit theoretical basis. To better capture the specific societal context of social well-being within Iran, we constructed a compound model from multiple pre-existing conceptual models, allowing us to group indicators and show relationships among contextually relevant areas and domains. Our framework proposes that there are societal and individual-level determinants that affect social health in a society and that social health has outcomes and impacts. To measure social health, variables of social integration, social contribution, social coherence, social actualization, social acceptance, social support, and social functioning are considered. The outcomes and impacts are to be measured and monitored by 37 variables. In many countries, social well-being measurements have been conducted on a regular basis for decades. Some of these systems of social health focus on individual (micro) measures, some on societal (macro) measures, and many on both. In this research, both individual level and societal level well-being measures were selected after being deemed contextually important for Iran. This system of social well-being measurement is to be used as a descriptive and monitoring tool but could potentially be utilized in goal setting, outcome-based accountability, and evaluations in order to promote social well-being and social policy research in Iran. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht