Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Women's health is the base of family and society's health. Self-efficacy is one of the factors which would lead to promotion of general health in women.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional - analytical study, general health status of 130 women referring to health center No.2 in Chalus were selected by simple random sampling. They were asked to complete a standard General health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and standard Self-efficacy questionnaire (General Self-Efficacy Scale-GSE) (Schwartzer & Jerusalem).

Results: Mean and standard deviation of general health and self-efficacy were 20.92±14.09 (desirable) and 29.76±6.07 (moderate). Also 34.6% of women complained from physical symptoms 36.2% had anxiety and sleep disorder 53.1% had impairment in social functioning and 14.6% had some symptoms that indicated depression. In general, 27% of women had some kind of health problems. There were signification relationship between general health and marital status, between marital status and depression, and between general health and self-efficacy.

Conclusions: General health and self-efficacy in these women are inadequate and planning educational program for promoting general health based on self-efficacy theory is necessary.