The article discusses various interpretations of the term of “social health”, presents a number of approaches to identifying empirical indicators in this category. The authors prove the urgency of the problem field of social health in the context of the global trend to strengthen the role of the subjective factor of social development taking into account the specificity of social transformation in Russia. It is concluded that at the present time, the problem of “social health” definition, as well as of the indicators reflecting its status remains debatable. The relevance of an appropriate range of issues (especially for the Russian society) makes the task related to the specification of the problem field of social health extremely important to enable its subsequent measurement and the development of effective recommendations for the management bodies taking measures for the prevention and reduction of the dynamics of social pathologies spread on the part of the scientific community. The article presents the author's view on some nuances of the theoretical understanding of the concept of “social health”, as well as the methodological tools for its measurement, which may contribute to the development of scientifically based recommendations for the management bodies. According to the authors, social health studies should be approached from a sociological point of view treating it as a complex social phenomenon, emerging in the process of interaction of the individual with the social environment and reflecting the level of this interaction. One should consider the category of “social health” as the individual’s social well-being indicator, measures of adaptation and social activity of the individual in society. Social health reflects the level of social adaptation of a personality as an active individual transforming social reality, which is important when explaining the close connection of social and mental health. At the same time, the authors make a conclusion that evaluating social health only by the dissemination of social diseases is insufficient. The population’s social wellbeing, the common psychological background, created by the society including its representatives without social pathologies should be considered for a comprehensive and objective analysis
Keywords
social health, adaptation, theoretical and methodological approaches, system of indicators, management efficiency