Relationship between Happiness and Mental Health with Social Capital among Health Workers

Mental health, happiness, and social capital are important factors in optimal performance, entrepreneurship, reducing anxiety and depression, and increasing collaboration, agreement, intimacy, trust, and job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between happiness and mental health with social capital of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences employees.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 employees of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2019. Data were collected using GHQ-28 General Health, Oxford Happiness and Social Capital questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software using independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression.

The mean age of participants was 40.40±8.18 years. The happiness of 57.5% of the participants was moderate, 54.5% had poor mental health, and 60.5% reported high social capital. Happiness and mental health predicted social capital and explained 9.2% of its variance changes. A good place to live had significant relationship with happiness and high social capital (p<0.01), but did not have relationship with mental health (p= 0.294). Also the mean scores of social capital, mental health, and happiness showed significant relationship with self-assessment of individual health, self-assessment of happiness, and life satisfaction (p<0.05).

The healthier and happier people feel and the more satisfied they are with life, the more they enjoy mental health, happiness, and social capital.