[ survey on preferences and factors influencing the decision of the physicians working in public centers of tehran university of medical sciences to enter family Physician]

Introduction: Given the role of general practitioners in the family physician plan, it is important for policy makers and planners to know the factors influencing GP's decision to enter this plan. The purpose of this research is to extract preferences and factors affecting the decision of the physicians working in health- treatment centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Methods: This was an applied descriptive survey. In this study, the preferences of general practitioners affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences have been extracted. For this purpose, a discrete choice experiment was used. Data were collected through a questionnaire structured by D-Efficiency criteria using SAS software, designed by SPSS software, and analyzed by STATA12

Results: Higher net income, employment in the place of residence, presence of a specified quota for PhD degree in family medicine, presence of housing and transportation facilities and lower covered population are preferred by GPs working in public sectors affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Among these attributes, service place was found to be 2 to 6 times more important than others. The attribute of settlement period did not show to have a significant affect. The importance of some attributes showed to be different in different socioeconomic groups

Conclusions: Designing the program with regard to the demographic characteristics of GPs can increase the probability of their entry and successful implementation of the project. Moreover, given the high importance of the location of employment attribute, it seems that very attractive incentives should be considered to encourage general practitioners in the public sector to practice in remote areas

[ relationship between health expenditure and environmental quality in developing countries]

Any rise in health expenditure is the main concern of householders and policymakers. A few studies have been conducted on assessing the determinants of expenditures and environmental quality from a macroeconomic point of view. This paper aimed to investigate the relationship between health expenditure and environmental quality in more than 114 developing countries between 1995 and 2007. In this study, health expenditure was proxied by the total per capita health expenditure data of WHO. In addition to per capita Gross Domestic Product [GDP], environmental quality, per capita carbon dioxide emission, Energy Intensity, access to clean water and improved sanitation were used as the determinants of health expenditure. The long-run equilibrium of the variables as well as health expenditure and environmental quality were studied by panel cointegration tests. The long-run and short-run elasticities were estimated by Dynamic OLS and Error Correction Model techniques. According to the results, income was the most important determinant of health expenditure in different countries. The elasticity of health expenditure with respect to GDP was more than one. Although in the short-run the energy intensity did not affect health expenditure, in the long-run, there was a positive relationship between these two variables. Income and environmental quality are important determinants of per capita health expenditure. There is a direct connection between health expenditure and environmental quality, in both long and short-run, suggesting that the deterioration of environmental ecosystems - as an unpleasant bi-product of production - leads to health problems.