Measurement of social health in a general population survey

This paper describes an attempt to define and measure the social health of individuals in terms of the degree to which they are functioning members of their community. Data were taken from questionnaires completed by 6928 adults in an area-probability sample of Alameda County, California households. Components of the social health index are employability, marital satisfaction, sociability, and community involvement. This index was associated with psychological well-being and other psychological measures, with the physical health spectrum, and with subjective evaluations of own health. Physically and psychologically healthy people are presumably better equipped than others to qualify for secure jobs, to maintain satisfactory marriages, and to become involved with others informally or in organized contexts. At the same time, socially healthy people may, as a consequence of their social health, be more likely to enjoy good physical health and psychological well-being than people who are dissatisfied with their marriages, socially isolated, and/or relatively unemployable.