Measurement and Analysis of Health Level in Rural Areas According to Healthy Village Approach: A Case Study of Khondab County, Markazi Province

Abstract

Population growth during twentieth century gave rise to the issue of health. Health in urban and rural areas is a complicated phenomenon the realization of which requires healthy environment and appropriate social, economic, cultural and environmental grounds. Understanding the nature and dimensions of health and its effective factors, on the one side, and making an effort to promote it on the other side, are of quite high importance in the rural areas and also play an important role in sustainability of these areas. This study aims at measuring and analyzing the health level of the households residing in the rural areas of Khondab county, and uses a descriptive and analytical method. For this purpose, given the dimensions and indexes of health, the required data is gathered through a field study method (questionnaire) and analyzed by using the stepwise multiple variable regressions. Study results indicate that the health level in the studied area is at a favorable status by an average of 3.24. To identify the factors effective on health, seven variables entered into the equation within the effective factors which totally, explained 73.7 percent of the household health variance.

Keywords