Assessing health inequalities in Iran: a focus on the distribution of health care facilities

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Equality in distribution of health care facilities is the main cause for access and enjoyment to the health. The aim of this study was to examine the regional disparities in health care facilities across the Markazi province. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Study sample included the cities of Markazi province, ranked based on 15 health indices. Data was collected by a data collection form made by the researcher using statistical yearbook. The indices were weighted using Shannon entropy. Finally, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was used to rank the towns of the province in terms of access to health care facilities. RESULTS: There is a large gap between cities of Markazi province in terms of access to health care facilities. Shannon entropy introduced the number of urban health centers per 1000 people as the most important indicator and the number of rural active health house per 1000 people as the less important indicator. According to TOPSIS, the towns of Ashtian and Shazand ranked the first and last (10th) respectively in access to health services. CONCLUSION: There are significant inequalities in distribution of health care facilities in Markazi province. We propose that policy makers determine resource allocation priorities according to the degree of development for a balanced and equal distribution of health care facilities

Identification of the GDF9 mutation in two sheep breeds by using polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique

A genetic mutation with major effects on the litter size in sheep was recently identified in the growth differentiation factor (GDF9) gene of the TGF-B super family (transforming growth factor). GDF9 gene has been localized to chromosome 5 in sheep. In order to evaluate the GDF9 gene polymorphism, blood samples were collected randomly from 42 Kordi sheep and 44 Arabic sheep from Kordestan and Khozestan provenance. Exon 1 from GDF9 gene was amplified to produce a 462 bp and exon 2 from GDF9 gene was amplified to produce a 139 bp fragment. The amplified fragment of Exon 1 was digested with Hin6I restriction enzyme and the amplified fragment of exon 2 was digested with DdeI restriction enzyme. Exon 1 revealed two alleles, (denoted A and B) and exon 2 revealed a single allele. In these populations for exon 1, AA and AB genotypes were observed. With attention to the role of a GDF9 in increasing ovulation rate, it seems that this gene can be used as a marker for increasing the twin rate.Key words: Polymorphism, PCR- RFLP, GDF9 gene