Factors Affecting Health Care Utilization in Tehran

Introduction: Successful health system planning and management is dependent on well informed decisions, so having complete knowledge about medical services’ utilization is essential for resource allocation and health plans. The main goal of this study is identification of factors effecting inpatient and outpatient services utilization in public and private sectors. Methods: This study encompasses all regions of Tehran in 2011 and uses Urban HEART questionnaires. This population-based survey included 34700 households with 118000 individuals in Tehran. For determining the most important factors affected on health services consumption, logit model was applied. Results: Regarding to the finding, the most important factors affected on utilization were age, income level and deciles, job status, household dimension and insurance coverage. The main point was the negative relationship between health care utilization and education but it had a positive relationship with private health care utilization. Moreover suffering from chronic disease was the most important variable in health care utilization. Conclusions: According to the mentioned results and the fact that access has effect on health services utilization, policy makers should try to eliminate financial access barriers of households and individuals. This may be done with identification of households with more than 65 or smaller than 5 years old, people in low income deciles or with chronic illness. According to age effect on health services usage and aging population of Iran, results of this study show more importance of attention to aged population needs in future years

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019

The impact of disease characteristics on multiple sclerosis patients’ quality of life

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to investigate the effects of characteristics of MS such as disease course, severity, and relapses on patients’ QoL. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study, in which 171 patients were enrolled. Health-related QoL was assessed using the Persian version of the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 questionnaire. To measure patients’ disability status, we used the Expanded Disability Status Scale. Other variables included in the study were disease course and relapses of the disease. RESULTS The average scores for patients’ physical and mental QoL were 60.9±22.3 and 59.5±21.4, respectively. In a bivariate analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were significantly associated with the physical and mental health composite scores. In a hierarchal regression analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were responsible for 38 and 16% of the variance in physical and mental QoL, respectively. It was also observed that relapses were a strong predictor of both physical and mental QoL. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed that disease characteristics significantly affected both dimensions of QoL. It is therefore suggested that health care providers should be aware of these characteristics of MS to more successfully improve MS patients’ QoL

Health Needs Assessment among Female Adolescents: A Case Study from Iran

Introduction: Identification of health needs of female adolescents is a necessity due to their double roles in the health status of current and future generations. Aim: To assess various types of health needs in physical, mental-emotional, social, spiritual, and educational aspects among Iranian female adolescents. Materials and Methods: A total of 400 girls studying in high schools of Khorramabad city of Iran, were selected using the stratified sampling and multistage cluster sampling. The tool used for data collection was Female Adolescents' Health Needs questionnaire. SPSS Version 20 Software was used to analyse the obtained data via Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA, and t-test. Results: The mean score and the Standard Deviation (SD) of the girls' health needs were 89.79±11.47. The highest and lowest health needs were spiritual and educational needs with the average scores of 94.79±11.70 and 87.37±14.13, respectively. The correlation coefficient test indicated that there is a strong and significant correlation between different dimensions of female adolescents' health needs. Social (75%) and spiritual (65%) dimensions had the highest and the lowest correlations with other dimensions, respectively. Conclusion: The study results show that the girls had varied health needs. To be prioritized are spiritual health, physical health, social health, mental-emotional health, and educational health, as found in this study

Attitude of public health students towards their field of study and future professions in Lorestan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Field of study and future profession has always been an important subject of education. The purpose of this study was identifying the attitude of public health students at Lorestan University of Medical Sciences toward field of study and future profession. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional. 78 students of public health from third to eighth semester in the academic year 2018 the population were selected by census method. The questionnaire used in this study is derived from the American University of Minnesota Attitude Questionnaire. It was developed in two sections (demographic characteristics & 17 questions about students̕ attitudes & perspectives toward field of study and future career). To analyze the data T-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation were used. Results: The mean score±standard deviation of students’ attitude toward the field of study and future career was 27.14±5.1 (theoretical mean score=27) and 22.79±5.25 (theoretical mean score =24) respectively. There was a significant correlation between their attitude towards field of study and their attitude towards future career (r = 0.472, P<0.0001). Important factors that gave rise to a negative attitude towards the future professions were inconsistencies between the curriculum of Public Health program and needs of society, anxiety about future profession, inadequate salary and employment benefits. Main negative factors related to students' attitudes about field of study were the negative attitude of society and other disciplines towards this field of study Conclusion: Regarding the results, attitudes of student about their future career and field of study were negative (close to average). Reforming and strengthening educational program, improvement of students’ internship, student admission according to society needs and establishing desirable conditions for graduates’ employment in this field lead to increase students' positive attitudes towards their field of study and consequently improve their attitude towards their future professions

The impact of the Iranian health transformation plan policy on equitable access to medical imaging services in West Iran

Abstract Objective Equity in the delivery of health services, including diagnostic imaging, is crucial to achieving universal health coverage. The Health Transformation Plan (HTP), launched in 2014, represents a major healthcare policy to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare services. This study aimed to explore the impact of the HTP on equity in the access to medical imaging in Lorestan province, located in west Iran, from 2014 to 2023. Annual growth rates (AGR) of imaging devices were calculated, whilst equity assessment of medical imaging distribution was carried out by means of the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve per 100,000 population. The latter was generated using the cumulative distribution of imaging devices, as well as the cumulative population ratio. Results Between 2014 and 2023, the number of imaging devices has increased threefold. The AGR of installing CT and MRI scanners in Lorestan province increased between 2014 and 2023. The Gini coefficients increased from 0.12 for CT and 0.16 for MRI in 2014 to 0.33 in 2023 for both devices. This indicates a decrease in equity in access to these fundamental health technologies despite the increase in their figures. Policymakers should better allocate medical equipment based on the specific health needs of different regions throughout Iran

Additional file 1 of The impact of the Iranian health transformation plan policy on equitable access to medical imaging services in West Iran

Supplementary Material