The Impact of Public and Private Health Expenditures on Poverty in developing countries

Background & Objectives: Changes in twenty-first century and incidence of development gap among countries has caused particular attention of all economic schools to the problem of poverty and the factors affecting it, as a consequence of underdevelopment. Health and health expenditures are considered as a tool for governments to get out from poverty. Methods: This study is one type of econometric studies with using panel data for Iran and 30 developing countries during 2005 to 2012. To determine the effect of health expenditures on poverty headcount ratio, Hassman and Chow tests were used in order to select the type of random or fixed effect regression model. Data analysis was done through Eviews 6 software. Results: Among factors affecting poverty, health expenditure had more significant impact on poverty. So that, one unit increase in public and private health expenditures caused respectively -2.93 decrease and 1.19 unit increase in headcount poverty ratio. In comparison to health expenditure, access to health facilities and primary school enrollment rate with respectively coefficients of -0.81 and 0.34 had less impact on poverty headcount ratio. Conclusion: Governments should pay more attention to policies of financing health sector and more expansion of governmental functions in financial support of health sector rather than private sector. Key¬words: Public Health Expenditure, Private Health Expenditure, Poverty Headcount Ratio ¬Citation: Harati J, Harati Khalilabad T, Rezapour A. The Impact of Public and Private Health Expenditures on Poverty in developing countries: 2005– 2012. Journal of Health Based Research 2016; 2(4): 345-354

The impact of Formal and Informal Employment of women on their Quality of Life: a study in Tehran

Background & Objectives: Women have a basic role in ensuring the health of future generations and their employment forms an important part of their life. Changes in the traditional roles of women and their growing demand for participation in various job positions, have become an undeniable fact of Iranian society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of formal and informal employment on women's quality of life. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study performed from December 2016 to July 2017 on 112 formal employed women and the same number of informal employed women who were randomly selected. To assess subjects’ quality of life, SF-36 standard questionnaire was used as a valid tool. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney and independent t- test statistical tests and through SPSS version 21 software. Results: According to the results, 49.1% of women working in the informal sector did not have high school diploma and were younger than 24 years old. The mean score of quality of life in women employed in the formal sector (78.95 ± 13.6) was significantly better than that of women employed in the informal sector (84.77 ± 10.21) (P<0.05). Conclusion: Due to the rapid growth of the informal sector following social and economic issues, the number of women working in the informal sector is increasing. Lack of insurance and adequate salary are some of the problems in the informal sector. Government intervention in the informal sector through implementing related laws is a strategy to solve the problems of women working in the informal sector of the country. Key¬words: Women employing, Quality of life, Formal employment, Informal employment Citation: Pourreza A, Rostaminya M, Harati Khalilabad T, Maleki S, Mosavi SA. The impact of Formal and Informal Employment of women on their Quality of Life: a study in Tehran. Journal of Health Based Research 2018; 3(4): 379-388

The Impact of Public and Private Health Expenditures on Poverty in developing countries

Background & Objectives: Changes in twenty-first century and incidence of development gap among countries has caused particular attention of all economic schools to the problem of poverty and the factors affecting it, as a consequence of underdevelopment. Health and health expenditures are considered as a tool for governments to get out from poverty. Methods: This study is one type of econometric studies with using panel data for Iran and 30 developing countries during 2005 to 2012. To determine the effect of health expenditures on poverty headcount ratio, Hassman and Chow tests were used in order to select the type of random or fixed effect regression model. Data analysis was done through Eviews 6 software. Results: Among factors affecting poverty, health expenditure had more significant impact on poverty. So that, one unit increase in public and private health expenditures caused respectively -2.93 decrease and 1.19 unit increase in headcount poverty ratio. In comparison to health expenditure, access to health facilities and primary school enrollment rate with respectively coefficients of -0.81 and 0.34 had less impact on poverty headcount ratio. Conclusion: Governments should pay more attention to policies of financing health sector and more expansion of governmental functions in financial support of health sector rather than private sector. Key­words: Public Health Expenditure, Private Health Expenditure, Poverty Headcount Ratio Citation: Harati J, Harati Khalilabad T, Rezapour A. The Impact of Public and Private Health Expenditures on Poverty in developing countries: 2005– 2012. Journal of Health Based Research 2017; 2(4): 345-354

The impact of Formal and Informal Employment of women on their Quality of Life: a study in Tehran

Background & Objectives: Women have a basic role in ensuring the health of future generations and their employment forms an important part of their life. Changes in the traditional roles of women and their growing demand for participation in various job positions, have become an undeniable fact of Iranian society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of formal and informal employment on women's quality of life. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study performed from December 2016 to July 2017 on 112 formal employed women and the same number of informal employed women who were randomly selected. To assess subjects’ quality of life, SF-36 standard questionnaire was used as a valid tool. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney and independent t- test statistical tests and through SPSS version 21 software. Results: According to the results, 49.1% of women working in the informal sector did not have high school diploma and were younger than 24 years old. The mean score of quality of life in women employed in the formal sector (78.95 ± 13.6) was significantly better than that of women employed in the informal sector (84.77 ± 10.21) (P<0.05). Conclusion: Due to the rapid growth of the informal sector following social and economic issues, the number of women working in the informal sector is increasing. Lack of insurance and adequate salary are some of the problems in the informal sector. Government intervention in the informal sector through implementing related laws is a strategy to solve the problems of women working in the informal sector of the country. Key­words: Women employing, Quality of life, Formal employment, Informal employment Citation: Pourreza A, Rostaminya M, Harati Khalilabad T, Maleki S, Mosavi SA. The impact of Formal and Informal Employment of women on their Quality of Life: a study in Tehran. Journal of Health Based Research 2018; 3(4): 379-388

Effects of Air Pollution on Public and Private Health Expenditures in Iran: A Time Series Study (1972-2014)

Objectives Environmental pollution is a negative consequence of the development process, and many countries are grappling with this phenomenon. As a developing country, Iran is not exempt from this rule, and Iran pays huge expenditures for the consequences of pollution. The aim of this study was to analyze the long- and short-run impact of air pollution, along with other health indicators, on private and public health expenditures. Methods This study was an applied and developmental study. Autoregressive distributed lag estimating models were used for the period of 1972 to 2014. In order to determine the co-integration between health expenditures and the infant mortality rate, fertility rate, per capita income, and pollution, we used the Wald test in Microfit version 4.1. We then used Eviews version 8 to evaluate the stationarity of the variables and to estimate the long- and short-run relationships. Results Long-run air pollution had a positive and significant effect on health expenditures, so that a 1.00% increase in the index of carbon dioxide led to an increase of 3.32% and 1.16% in public and private health expenditures, respectively. Air pollution also had a greater impact on health expenditures in the long term than in the short term. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that among the factors affecting health expenditures, environmental quality and contaminants played the most important role. Therefore, in order to reduce the financial burden of health expenditures in Iran, it is essential to reduce air pollution by enacting and implementing laws that protect the environment

Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients using Neoadjuvant AC (Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide) in Comparison with PG (Paclitaxel and Gemcitabine) Therapy

Background: Quality of life has become a part of the evaluation criteria for cancer therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life in breast cancer patients under chemotherapy regimens that contained doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) compared to paclitaxel and gemcitabine (PG). Methods: This cohort study evaluated 100 women with breast cancer treated by doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide or gemcitabine and paclitaxel regimens. We used the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire- Core 30 to assess health related quality of life at the beginning and end of chemotherapy. Data were analyzed by the independent t-test at a significance level of 0.05. Results: Most of the 100 patients were married (68%), aged 41-50 years (36%), non-college educated (76%), and had insurance (97%). The mean quality of life scores at the first session of chemotherapy and prior to the onset of treatment-related adverse events were 71.33 for the doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide groups and 71.15 for the gemcitabine and paclitaxel groups. Analysis of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 at the last chemotherapy session showed that the quality of life in both groups deteriorated as a result of side effects. The mean of quality of life scores at the first session of chemotherapy were 66.49 for the doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide group and 59.99 for the gemcitabine and paclitaxel group. Conclusion: Strategies to improve the emotional and role functions of the patients who undergo treatment should be given priority. Financial difficulties faced by breast cancer patients should be addressed from a policy making level at the initiating health financing system