Abstract

Background: Social health, as one of the key components of health, plays an important role in ensuring the dynamism and efficacy of each society. It is considered as one of the health assessment criteria of various communities and prisoners have many health needs. The aim of this study was to assess social health and its related factors among male prisoners. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 200 male prisoners in the central prison of Urmia using simple random sampling method in 2016. The instruments included Keyes Social Health Questionnaire to measure social health and a demographic questionnaire containing demographic information on type of crime. The data analysis was performed using chi-square, one-way ANOVA and Scheffe tests in SPSS16. Results: Mean score of social health of male prisoners was 65.01 (10.11) from the total score of 100. Social health was associated with variables like education, marital status, occupation and economic status. The results also showed that assault offenders had the lowest level of social health and there was a significant relationship between social health and crime type (P-value < 0.05). Conclusion: Considering the significant relationship between the crime type and the social health of male prisoners, it is necessary to adopt policies for the promotion of prisoners’ level of social health in order to improve their other health dimensions and to prevent the recurrence of crime.

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