Determinants of the Social Health of Rural Women in Ghale-Shahin Rural District in Kermanshah Province, Iran

Social health is essential to social development of rural communities, especially rural women, in order to promote their welfare as well as their human and social capital. The present research was applied in terms of objective, and it was implemented using different approaches to examine the social health of rural women and its determinants in Kermanshah Province, Iran. The research method was descriptive-correlational conducted based on documentary and field method (questionnaire was used as the research instrument). The statistical society consisted of rural women (N=5561) of Ghale Shahin County, which is located in the west of Kermanshah Province, out of which 209 women were selected by multistage sampling method. 209 questionnaires were distributed among the study population, and 187 complete questionnaires were analyzed. Return rate of the questionnaires was equal to 89%. The results showed that the majority of women had a moderate level of social health, communication skills, and social support. It was also found that there was a positive significant correlation between TV watching, the amount of leisure time, the level of communication, and social health of rural women. Results also showed that leisure time, TV watching, and communication skills altogether explained 49 percent of the social health variance of the rural women in the study area. As communication skills and social health of rural women were at the moderate level, and considering the results of the study, it is recommended that organizations in charge of social health of the rural women, such as rural women's social health bases, national youth organization, social affairs deputy of municipality and/or rural development agents as social worker, develop educational content of social health promotion courses with participation of rural women.