Explanation of the Impacts of Sociocultural Factors on Achieving Healthy City Pattern Case Study: Behbahan City

Nowadays, extensive and rapid urbanization has caused cities to face many problems and led to endanger people's health, grow of the health discussion in public forums and provide solutions to the problems of rapid urbanization. One of these strategies is the implementation of the healthy city project, and considering the importance of sociocultural factors in the study of cities, this study was conducted with the aim of explaining the role of sociocultural factors affecting the achievement of the healthy city pattern and then by addressing it, seeks to achieve cities that are responsible for the environmental, economic, sociocultural problems, etc. on the one hand, and the mental and physical problems of the citizens on the other hand. The present study, with the knowledge of the importance of this subject and in view of the importance of addressing sociocultural issues that are considered as one of the most important ones of urban society, has studied the role of sociocultural factors affecting the achievement of a healthy city in Behbahan to recognize and analyze the sociocultural  problems and issues related to the indicators of a healthy city in the field of environmental, economic, urban attractiveness and health care in Behbahan, which is emphasized by the World Health Organization, to achieve a pattern of a healthy city.

This research is a qualitative-quantitative, applied and descriptive-analytical one in terms of approach, purpose and nature, respectively. In this regard, in connection with the theoretical foundations related to the subject, the library method and in order to obtain the required data from the citizens (over fifteen years old), the field survey method has been used, so that at first, 382 questionnaires were obtained based on Cochran's model, and 400 questionnaires were distributed and completed among citizens in proportion to the population of the districts for greater confidence and accuracy. SPSS and SMART PLS software programs were also used to assess the impact of sociocultural factors in the city. To assess the validity of the questionnaire, the opinions of 30 specialized professors as well as experts and city managers of Behbahan were used, and finally the author's questionnaire was approved. To confirm the validity of the measurement tool, three types of evaluation validity were used as content validity, convergent validity and divergent validity.

The results of the test of research hypotheses in the t-statistic showed that the absolute value of the t-statistic for the effect of social factors and their role in healthy city indicators was 3.611 and for cultural factors was 3.595 and also path coefficients for social factors 0.217 and for cultural factors 0.204 that the research hypotheses are acceptable and cultural and social factors play a role in creating a healthy city in Behbahan. Considering that CV Red for the indicators of a healthy city is 0/055 and CV Com is 0.489, and for social factors 0.334 and 0.340, respectively, and for cultural factors 0.401 and 0.445, which indicates the optimal quality of the measurement model and the optimal quality of the structural model.Among its components, inter-sectoral and participatory collaboration with the average of 1.92 and 2.38, respectively, which have a lower than average level and the worst conditions that indicate people are less involved in urban planning. In addition, there is a powerless cooperation between the urban institutions to solve the city's problems, and only the feeling of belonging to the place component with an average of 3.56 is in better condition. Cultural factors with an average of 3.15 are in a better condition in Behbahan city and healthy city variable with an average of 2.18 which indicates that Behbahan city is lower than average in terms of indicators of healthy city, so that all sub-indicators are in an undesirable situation, including environmental, health care, urban attractiveness and economic.

Following the rapid growth of urbanization and population in the last century in Iran and other countries on the one hand, and the problems that followed in the proper management and planning of cities, especially in developing countries on the other hand, cities have become to a place that   faced all kinds of shortcomings and problems in the field of sociocultural, economic, environmental, health care and other issues that urban managers and planners have sought to address existing problems. Followed it, in 1984, for the first time in order to get out of the current situation of cities, Professor Dahl coined the term Healthy City and was complimented by the World Health Organization(WHO) which saw it as in line with its goals and policies. Gradually, it was widely used in the world's urban planning literature to solve the problems and issues that cities faced, and the projects of Healthy City were implemented in most cities of the world. These days, Behbahan city, with a population of 122.604, is facing many challenges. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the role of socio-cultural factors in achieving a healthy city pattern in Behbahan. In this regard, SPSS and SMART-PLS2 software programs were used to evaluate the research hypotheses. The results showed that sociocultural factors have a significant role, effect and relationship with the indicators of a healthy city, but these factors do not have desirable conditions in Behbahan city and also the indicators of a healthy city are not in a good situation in it. So, it can be expressed that Behbahan city does not have the conditions of a healthy city.