Showing 6 results for Public Health
Behzad Damari, Abbas Vosough Moghaddam, Ahmad Hajebi, Mohammad Hossein Salarian Zadeh, Habib Emami,
Volume 13, Issue 3 (12-2015)
Abstract
Background and Aim: The Pars Energy-Economic Special Zone, as the energy capital of Iran, needs a healthy productive workforce. In order to be able to promote equitable health indicators of the Zone, it is essential to first obtain information about the situation of the health system in the region.
Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional qualitative study. Data were collected using an essential public health services (EPHS) performance assessment questionnaire and a researcher-developed questionnaire for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of the Zone health system. In the next phase, stakeholder analysis was done: the major stakeholders were invited and asked, after explaining the methodology to them, to complete, individually, the EPHS performance assessment and the SWOT analysis questionnaires, followed by grouping and summarizing the results. Finally, content analysis of results of the group discussions was done and the main domainsا extracted.
Results: The EPHS overall average score was 37.8 (out of 100, the standard score). The greatest weakness was allocated to information functioning. Delivering public health services by the district health networks was the most important strength. Further analysis of the data showed that the far external environment in all the subdomains was the major threat to the public health in the zone.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be said that the organizational status of the Zone is in a weak and threat position. One of the root causes is poor functioning of the public health system. It is essential that the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education find effective ways for integrated leadership of the public health services in the Zone.
Mahdi Shahraki, Simin Ghaderi,
Volume 19, Issue 1 (6-2021)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Public health expenditures and the quality of governance are among factors affecting the health status of a population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction effects of good governance and public health expenditures on the health status of children in upper-middle income countries.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical applied study was performed using the panel data regression with the fixed effects method and quantile regression for panel data for the years 2000-2017 in 2020. The statistical population was upper-middle income countries, and annual time series data were extracted from the World Bank databases. The models and required tests were determined using the Stata-16 software.
Results: The coefficient of good governance variable and the index of interaction effects of good governance and the public health expenditures for the under-five child mortality as the dependent variable were -0.002 and -0.003, and for the infant mortality as dependent variable -0.002 and -0.002, respectively. Also, the coefficient of the index of the interaction effects of good governance and public health expenditures in the quantiles of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 for the under-five child mortality as the dependent variable were -0.0333, -0.0447 and 0.048, and for the infant mortality as the dependent variable were was -0.044, -0.048 and -0.049, respectively.
Conclusion: Improvement of governance indicators will increase the efficiency of public health expenditures and improve the children’s health status. Therefore, in order to improve health status, especially in countries with higher child mortalities, it is recommended to improve good governance, increase public health expenditures and government investment in health infrastructure, as well as increase gross domestic product and women's employment.
Mohammad Zia Hoseini, Fatemeh Setoodehzadeh, Mehdi Zanganeh Baygi,
Volume 20, Issue 4 (3-2023)
Abstract
Background and Aim: As a pandemic disease, Covid 19 has taken the lives of many people all over the world and has put a lot of pressure on the health care system and health care personnel. The experiences of managers and employees can help increase the efficiency of the health systems in future crises. This study was carried out in order to use the experiences of the personnel of the Crisis Section of Zahedan Medical University Public Health Deputy (ZMUPHD) in controlling the Covid-19 epidemic.
Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative research conducted in 2021-22 using the content analysis method including 30 employees of the Crisis Staff of the ZMUPHD selected by purposeful sampling. Data were collected based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews and analyzed in eight stages including typing the text of the interviews, determining semantic units, coding the text, revising the codes, classifying and developing the classes, revising the classes, identifying the themes and reporting the data.
Resulte: The experiences of the managers and employees of the ZMUPHD to deal withا the Corona pandemic were identified and extracted in 5 main areas including "Legislative", "Operational", "Manpower", "Supervisory" and "Financial", and 13 sub-areas.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, one of the problems in the administration and management of the Covid crisis was the lack of sufficient supervision and political requirements in order to control and prevent the spread of the disease, as well as the lack of a single decision-making organization. Also, financial problems and problems related to human resources were found to be among the most important issues. On the other hand, from the point of view of the interviewees, the use of the 4030 system was one of the turning points in crisis management.
Elham Fatholahi, Mohammad Jafari,
Volume 21, Issue 1 (10-2023)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Products such as tobacco are considered harmful to human life due to the fact that they contribute greatly to mortality around the world. Tobacco use kills more than eight million people worldwide annually. This has necessitated the imposition of taxes on such harmful products with the aim of reducing their demand and, thus, guaranteeing the increase in the health of the population in Iran.
Materials and Methods: Using the tobacco tax as a proxy for the tax on harmful products and the death rate as an indicator of the general health of the population, this study investigated the effect of the tax on harmful products on the health of the population in 30 provinces of Iran between 2007 and 2018. For this purpose, the dynamic panel generalized moment method (GMM) using Eviews 10 and stata17 software was used as an experimental estimation technique.
Results: Analysis of the data collected revealed that the tax on harmful products can help promote the health of the population, since the government can use the additional income thus generated to improve the health of the population. These findings support the World Health Organization's justification that taxes on harmful products, especially on tobacco, not only can reduce their consumption, but also can help to promote health outcomes. In addition, increasing the tax on cigarettes, which is considered the most important and key strategy by the World Health Organization, will lead to spending the resulting income on improving health and educational infrastructure, health centers, emergency services, etc.
Conclusion: In general, the more a government spends on health care, the more the health of the population and, consequently, the higher the life expectancy of the population. Regarding the effects of prices/and taxes on smoking or tobacco consumption on the mortality reduction in Iran, if the taxes imposed on harmful products are increased and the resulting additional funds are used and effectively administered to meet the recommendations of the World Health Organization, better desirable outcomes will result in the health of the population as compared to those observed in this study. In addition, the policymakers should start actions that will help promote economic growth, because this will increase the health of the population. Moreover, actions and efforts aiming to increase the population growth rate should be accompanied by significant investments in the health sector.
Hamidreza Atefifar, Hossein Aghajani Marsa, Alireza Mohseni Tabrizi,
Volume 21, Issue 2 (9-2023)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Tobacco use, narcotics, drug abuse, consumption of alcohol, having unsafe sexual relations and other such behaviours are risky behaviors that tend to cause great concerns in families. Parents try to cope with high-risk behaviors through care strategies. The purpose of this research was to determine the typology of strategies for taking care of risky behaviors based on to the family socioeconomic status (SES).
Materials and Methods: This was a quantitative descriptive-correlational research including all the urban families of Tabriz, Iran, from among whom a sample of 384 families was selected by the multi-stage cluster method. Two measurement tools (checklist for high-risk behavior care strategies and a family SES questionnaire) were used to gather data, the one-way analysis of variance (F) test and linear regression being used to determine the relationships between the variables.
Results: The means of strategies for taking care of risky behaviors were significantly different based on the SES of the family, the upper classes adopting a more appropriate (procedural) strategy to take care of children against risky behaviors than the lower classes. Conclusion: Families with a medium and low SES use ineffective care strategies (inefficient and momentary) to cope with risky behaviors. In order to improve the public's health, it is necessary to adopt prevention-based cultural-educational policies to transform ineffective care strategies to procedural strategies.
Jalal Big Mohammadi, Mehdi Zanganeh,
Volume 21, Issue 4 (3-2024)
Abstract
Background and Aim: The Health Transformation Plan (HTP) has been developed to be implemented in the rural areas with the goal of easy access of the villagers to the physician, their equitable benefit of the public facilities and improving the outpatient services. The present study was conducted to find and explain the experiences of family physicians of the rural centers and managers after the execution of HTP of the public health sector in Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS), Zahedan, Iran.
Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative study using the content analysis method conducted in 1402 in the public health section in ZAUMS. The research population was the physicians and managers working in the rural areas of ZAUMS between 2015 and 2022; a sample was selected using the purposeful sampling method. Data were collected using the semi-structured interview based on the interview guide; content analysis was done using contract analytics.
Results: A group of 31 individuals including 20 men and 11 women and 19 physicians and 12 managers entered the study. Data were collected, analyzed and grouped in 6 main classes, namely, service delivery, integrated health system, resources, people and service recipients, monitoring and supervision, and suggestions; 12 sub-classes were extracted.
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that appropriate training, service quality, financial support, and sustainable skilled manpower are the factors that will help solve the challenges in the Health Transformation Plan. On the other hand, considering that one of the components of the health system for successful implementation of the Health Transformation Plan is human resources, the ability and flexibility of the personnel play an important role in the speed of service delivery and service quality.
