Analysis of Indicators of Health Status in Provinces and Ten Regions of Iran

Authors

Abstract

Background: Health sector is one of the most important management sectors that improvement of its indicators, leads to increased wellbeing of people, costs reduction and ultimately sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to investigate health status indicators of Iran provinces and to rank the provinces and ten regions of Iran accordingly.
 
Methods: The method of study was descriptive and analytical. The population of the study included 31 provinces and ten regions of Iran. In this study, 20 health indicators were selected. Entropy method was used for weighting. In order to rank provinces and regions of the country, TOPSIS was used and finally for mapping Arc GIS 10.1 was used.
 
Results: According to the results, Gilan, Semnan and Yazd provinces gained respectively the first ranks and Sistan and Baluchestan, Kermanshah and Khuzestan provinces were respectively ranked as the last ones. In the ranking of regions, in terms of development, north coastal regions and central areas gained respectively the first and the second ranks and the southeastern region was in the last place.
 
Conclusion: Most of the provinces were grouped as deprived and relatively deprived and in terms of health status indicators were in a state of instability. Political and administrative centralization are the main factors causing this situation. In order to improve the distribution of health sectors and to reduce losses resulting from deprivation, the large south-east region and the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan should be considered in investment and planning priorities.

Keywords


1. Nastaran M. Analysis and evaluation of concentration level and disparity of health and treatment indicators in Isfahan city. Journal of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities 2001; (26- 27): 145-62. Persian 2. Hadder R. Development Geography. 2th ed. London: Rutledge; 2003. 3. Safaei Pour M, Maveddat E. Assessment of areas with an emphasis on social indicators - economic and human development indicators in combination with the use of GIS techniques and TOPSIS, Studies on Urban Planning 2013;l(3):11-27. Persian 4. Martic M, Savic G. An application of DEA for comparative analysis and ranking of regions in Serbia with regards to social-economic development. European Journal of Operational Research 2001; 132(2):343-56. 5. Bar-El R, Schwartz D. Regional development as a policy for growth with equity: the state of Ceara (Brazil) as a model. Progress in Planning 2006; 65:131–99. 6. Poormohammadi M, Ranjbarnia B, Maleki K, Shefaati A. Evaluation of townships development in Kermanshah province. Journal of Spatial Planning 2012; 2(1): 1-26. Persian 7. Lotfi S, Shabani M. Presenting an integrated model for ranking regional development a case study of health and Medical sector of Mazandaran province. Journal of Geographical Sciences 2013;13(28): 7- 30. Persian 8. Mousavi SM, Seyedin SH, Aryankhesal A, Sadeghifar J, Armoun B, Safari Y, Jouyani Y. Stratification of Kermanshah Province districts in terms of health structural indicators using scalogram model. Journal of Health Promotion Management 2013; 2(2): 11- 27. Persian 9. Zarrabi A, Shaykh Baygloo R. Classification of provinces of Iran by health indicators. Social Welfare 2011; 11(42):107-28. Persian 10. Ganbari Y, Bargi H, Hajarian A. An analysis of access level of Isfahan County. Journal of Roosta Va Towse'e 2011; 14(3):93- 112. Persian 11. Elyaspour B, Elyaspour D, Hejazi A. A study of the degree of development in the health sector of towns in North Khorasan province using numerical taxonomy in 2006. Journal of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences 2011; 3(1): 23-8. Persian. 12. Mirfakhraddiny H, Farid D, Tahari Mehrjardi M, Zareei Mahmod Abadi M. Identification and ranking of factors affecting quality improvement of health & treatment services using Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM): a case study. J Health Adm 2011; 14 (43):51-62. Persian 13. Soares JO, Marquês MM, Monteiro CM. A multivariate methodology to uncover regional disparities: a contribution to improve European :union: and governmental decisions. European Journal of Operational Research 2003;145(1):121-35. 14. Amini N, Yadolahi H, Inanloo S. Ranking of country provinces health. Social Welfare 2006; 5 (20):27-48. Persian 15. Pourtaheri M. Application of Multi-Attribute Decision Making Methods in Geography. 5th ed. Tehran: Samt; 2013 Persian. 16. Poormohamadi M, Ranjbarnia B, Maleki K, Shefaati A. Evaluation of townships development in Kermanshah province. Spatial Planing 2014; 2(1): 1- 26. Persian 17. Ghajar Khosravi MM. Overview of preparation of regional physical plans in Iran. Housing and Rural Environment 2010; 29(130): 90-101. Persian 18. Tahari Mehrjardi MH, Babaei Meybodi H, Morovati Sharifabadi A. Investigation and ranking of Iranian provinces in terms of access to health sector indicators. J Health Info Manage 2012; 9(3):356- 69. Persian. 19. Tahari Mehrjardi MH, Babaei Meybodi H, Morovati Sharifabadi A. Investigation and ranking of Iranian provinces in terms of access to health sector indicators. J Health Info Manage 2012; 9(3):356- 69. Persian 20. Yazdi M, Mahjub H. Ranking maternal health status in rural areas in Iran based on multivariate techniques of factor and cluster analysis. Iranian Journal of Epidemology 2011; 7(1):7- 14. Persian 21. Azimi N. Explore Urbanization and Foundations of urban system, Tehran: Ayzh; 2001. Persian.