Investigating Social Health and Its Related Factors among Male Prisoners of Urmia in 2016

Background: Social health, as one of the key components of health, playsan important role in ensuring the dynamism and efficacy of each society. Itis considered as one of the health assessment criteria of variouscommunities and prisoners have many health needs. The aim of this studywas to assess social health and its related factors among male prisoners.Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 200 maleprisoners in the central prison of Urmia using simple random samplingmethod in 2016. The instruments included Keyes Social HealthQuestionnaire to measure social health and a demographic questionnairecontaining demographic information on type of crime. The data analysiswas performed using chi-square, one-way ANOVA and Scheffe tests inSPSS16.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 likeeducation, marital status, occupation and economic status. The results alsoshowed that assault offenders had the lowest level of social health and therewas a significant relationship between social health and crime type (P-value< 0.05).Conclusion: Considering the significant relationship between the crimetype and the social health of male prisoners, it is necessary to adopt policiesfor the promotion of prisoners’ level of social health in order to improvetheir other health dimensions and to prevent the recurrence of crime.