Correspondence Address:
Dr. Amir H Pakpour
Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Science, Qazvin
Iran

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that “health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”[1] Hence, for health professionals, good health should be evaluated through a holistic perspective together with human well-being. In other words, health includes a fundamental resource for individuals, communities, and societies overall, which are tied to each other.[2] Having good health at an individual level means having healthy and reproductive population, and economic growth and social development for the society will be subsequently achieved. The other face of the coin is that living in a healthy society with appropriate social networks, communication, and access to different services promotes individual health.

The emphasis of the WHO to social, in addition to physical and mental domains, shows the importance of social health. However, in the literature, social health has a broad concept and generally focuses on social activities, social well-being, social network quality, interpersonal communication, social support, and social role participation and satisfaction.[3] According to the different proposed concepts of social health, it can be viewed and studied from three aspects including individual social health, community health, and social determinants of health (SDH) while SDH focuses on deprivation, unemployment, and education.[4]

Despite the importance of social health in different aspects of life, it seems to be less familiar and be less discussed and studied.[5] Social health and Behavior Journal (SHBJ) is thus established to provide a base for publishing evidence of health-related effects of social health at different levels of individual, community, and SDH. Social health and behavior journal aims to publish the evidence that could be used in policy-making, designing, and implementing interventional measures to improve overall health for human beings.

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