Health services utilisation and responsiveness profiles in Iran: a provincial household study

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to describe health services utilisation and responsiveness in East Azerbaijan province, Iran.DesignA cross-sectional household study as part of a larger research on primary healthcare system.SettingWe carried out the study in East Azerbaijan Province, northwest Iran from July to September 2015.ParticipantsA total of 1318 households were included.ResultsMost of the participating households had social security health insurance. Heart failure or hypertension care, general outpatient care and arthritis care were the most used services. High services cost and inadequate medicine and medical equipment were introduced to be the main barriers to health services utilisation in Tabriz and province representative sample (PRS), respectively. Health system responsiveness mean score (the maximum is 100) was 33.71±16.15 (95% CI 32.45 to 34.97) in Tabriz and 32.02±14.3 (95% CI 30.9 to 33.13) in PRS, which showed significant difference (p≤0.02).ConclusionsDifferences in the utilisation and responsiveness of health services and distribution of health resources were observed between Tabriz and PRS. Evidently, health system responsiveness in both Tabriz and PRS was at low level. The results demonstrate the need for changing resource distribution policies and employing reactive health policies to response the public health.

A Community-Based Safety Reporting System; Development, Implementation, and Evaluation: An Experience of Safe Communities in Iran

“…Considering the significance of community participation in safety promotion initiatives and their sustainability, online reporting systems could play a vital role in establishing and maintaining a connection between the community and authorities ( 12 , 13 ). Community reporting systems provide a crowdsourcing platform that gives first-hand data from the public to authorities.…”

Establishment of a prognostic model based on the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score for patients with first-time acute myocardial infarction

“… 3 , 4 This is closely related to the health resource services that patients use and the pathological changes caused by changes in trace elements (e.g., melatonin) in their bodies. 5 , 6 Studies in the United States have shown that the death rate from coronary artery disease has dropped sharply over the past four decades, but this favorable trend does not appear to extend to young people, especially young women. Similarly, the hospitalization rate for AMI in young people has not decreased.…”