A survey of social well-being among employees, retirees, and nursing students: a descriptive-analytical study

BACKGROUND: Social well-being is one of the essential dimensions of individual health. Nursing is one of the occupations that can affect a person’s well-being. This study aimed to determine social well-being among employees, retirees, and nursing students. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. 321 samples participated in this study. Convenience sampling method was used to collect samples. Two questionnaires of demographic characteristics and the Keyes Social Well-being Questionnaire were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Linear regression analysis by the Backward Elimination method were applied using SPSS 14.0. RESULTS: The mean total social well-being score of this study’s participants was 100 ± 16.43. The mean social well-being score among nursing employees was 109.58 ± 15.98, among nursing retirees was 95.67 ± 12.55, and among nursing students was 93.14 ± 14.81. Nursing students had lower social well-being scores than nursing employees and retirees (p < 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed a significant relationship between the number of children (p = 0.04) (β = -0.11), marital status (p = 0.04) (β = 2.95), and employment status (p < 0/001) (β = 0.451) and social well-being and predicted 25% of the total variance of social well-being. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, the social well-being of retirees and nursing students was significantly lower than nursing employees. Therefore, the educational and healthcare systems of the countries must take the necessary measures to improve the Social well-being of this group of people.