The Status of Social Well-Being in Iranian Nurses: a Cross- Sectional Study

Introduction: Social well-being is one of the important aspects of individual’s health.However, the social aspect of health, or social well-being, has not been attended to asequally as the other aspects. Social well-being is people’s perceptions and experiencesin social circumstances as well as the degree of successful responses to socialchallenges. The aim of the study was to investigate the social well-being of a sample ofIranian nurses.Methods: This study was a cross- sectional conducted in 2013. The study populationconsisted of all 1200 staff nurses working in all hospitals located in Ardabil, Iran. Weinvited a random sample of 281 practicing nurses to respond to the 33-item Keyes’sSocial Well-Being Questionnaire and the possible range of the total score is 33–165.Higher score reflect better SWB. The quantitative analysis of this study used theStatistical Package for Social Science SPSS version 13.0.Results: The results showed that Participants’ mean score of social well-being was105.45 (15.87). Social well-being was significantly related to participants’ age, gender,work experience, satisfaction with working in hospital and with income, familiaritywith nursing prior to entering it, official position, and type of employment. However,there was no significant relationship between nurses’ social well -being and theirmarital status, their parents and spouses’ educational status, as well as the type ofhospital.Conclusion: Nurses’ social well-being deserves special attention. Effective well-beingpromotion strategies should be executed for promoting their social well-beingparticularly in areas of social integration and social acceptance. Moreover, nurses,particularly female nurses, need strong financial, emotional, informational, and socialsupport for ensuring their social well-being.