Social Health and Quality of Life in Health Workers in Qorveh and Dehgolan, 2019

Health workers are the most fundamental elements of the health system whose mission is to improve the health of the rural community. Assessing and measuring the level of health is one of the important health issues. Health is a broad concept with multiple dimensions including physical, mental, and social health. Social health is a concept that has become increasingly important in scientific, policy, and executive circles. Social health emphasizes aspects of health related to a personchr('39')s relationship with other people or the communities in which he lives. One of the factors affecting social health is quality of life. Quality of life is a multidimensional concept affected by many important factors such as physical and mental conditions. Assessing the quality of life is important in order to determine physical, mental, and social performance. These dimensions can be discussed independently, but there is a correlation between them. Certainly, the development of health promotion programs in the community, regardless of the social and cultural context of the community in question leads to inefficient solutions. Despite the importance of health workerschr('39') work, their high volume of work, and pathological consequences, few studies are conducted on the qualitative and social fields of health workers. As a result, it is necessary to pay attention to their physical, mental, and social health and quality of life. Achieving goals in the field of health requires preventing death, reducing disability, improving the quality of life, and efficient workforce. Since health workers are at the forefront of health care centers, it is necessary to have good social health and quality of life to provide services to villagers. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the social health and quality of life in health workers in Qorveh and Dehgolan in 2019.

This study was conducted to evaluate the social health and quality of life of health workers in Qorveh and Dehgolan cities affiliated to Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study and included 198 health workers working in health centers in Qorveh and Dehgolan cities. Among them, 87 were working in 42 health centers of Dehgolan and 111 in 58 health centers of Qorveh. Samples were selected by census sampling method. After obtaining approval from the Research Ethics Committee and receiving a letter of introduction from Iran University of Medical Sciences and submitting it to Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, the researcher obtained permission to participate in the research. In order to observe ethical considerations, the researcher first explained the objectives and method of the study to the officials of Qorveh and Dehgolan health centers, and in collaboration with them attended the workshops where the researcher attended as a lecturer and after obtaining informed consent, the researched distributed demographic information form, Social Health Questionnaire, and SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire among health workers to complete in 10 days and deliver to Qorveh health workers, and then to Dehgolan Welfare Training Center, and subsequently to Dehgolan Health Center. The researcher thanked the health workers and collected the information of the health workers who were absent during the workshops hold in the health centers. After collecting information which lasted for 3 months, the data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.

The findings of the present study showed that most of the health workers participating in this study were women, their average age was 37 years, the majority were married, and officially employed, and had a diploma degree. Most of them assessed their economic situation as moderate, owned a house, and had no underlying diseases. The total score of social health was 69.28 ± 7.6 which indicates the average social health in health workers. The highest and lowest mean scores obtained among the dimensions of social health were social cohesion with an average of 4.09 ± 20.67 and social acceptance with an average of 2.96 ± 0.64, respectively. The total score of quality of life of health workers was 63.30 ± 20.87, which indicates their average quality of life. Quality of life was the highest in the dimension of physical function with an average of 73.35 ± 29.74, and was the lowest in the dimension of general health with an average of 57.82 ± 21.74. Also, the physical health dimension with an average of 63.85 ± 24.58 was higher than the mental health dimension with an average of 62.75 ± 21.29. The only variable that had a statistically significant relationship with the social health of health workers was housing status (p = 0.005). Tukeychr('39')s multiple comparison showed that the average score of social health obtained for health workers with a private home was significantly higher than those with a rental house (p = 0.005), and the difference was not significant in other cases. But all demographic variables of health workers had a statistically significant relationship with quality of life. The results showed that the quality of life in male health workers compared to the females (p = 0.012), health workers with diploma degree compared to health workers with secondary education (p <0.001), single health workers compared to married ones (p <0.001), and health workers who had no history of disease was higher (p <0.001). Age was another variable that had a statistically significant relationship with quality of life (p <0.001). Quality of life in health workers with formal employment was significantly lower than corporate health workers (p <0.001) and also contracted ones (p = 0.007), and this difference was not significant at other levels. Quality of life in health workers with more than 20 years of experience was significantly lower than health workers with 10 - 19 years of experience (p <0.001) and also less than 10 years of experience (p <0.001). The quality of life in health workers with poor economic status was significantly lower than those with average economic status (p = 0.04) and this difference was not significant at other levels. Housing status was another variable that had a statistically significant relationship with quality of life (p = 0.009). Also, the mean score of quality of life obtained for health workers with a private home was significantly higher than those with a rental house (p = 0.018) and in other cases this difference was not significant.

The present study showed that the social health of health workers was average and higher than the mean score of 60. The highest and lowest scores obtained in the dimensions of social health were social cohesion and social acceptance, respectively. Also, the quality of life of health workers was moderate. Health workers obtained the highest score in the physical function dimension and the lowest score in the general health dimension. The mean score in the physical dimension was higher than the mental health dimension. The study on the effect of demographic variables showed that the only variable with a statistically significant relationship with social health was housing status and the difference was not significant for the other cases. All demographic variables of health workers had a statistically significant relationship with quality of life. Variables of quality of life and social health are dynamic concepts that change over time. Examining and measuring this concept depicts the status of human development in society, so continuous monitoring of quality of life and social health is essential. The health system will have the desired efficiency when the problems and needs of its employees are taken into account in its design and management. The results of this study highlight the importance of implementing health education and health promotion interventions in the field of social health and quality of life among employees.