Assessing the accessibility and degree of development in health care resources: evidence from the West of Iran

Introduction: health care is one of the most important sectors in the development of each country and disparities in their distribution will reduce the level of development. The aim of this study was to examine the access to healthcare and degree of development in health care resources in the west of Iran in 2011

Method: this was a cross-sectional and retrospective study. The study setting was 51 cities of five western provinces of Iran, including Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam, Lorestan and Hamadan. For assessing these towns in terms of the degree of development in healthcare resources by the numerical taxonomy technique, 23 indicators of health resources were selected and obtained from the statistics yearbook. The data was analyzed by EXCEL software

Results: our study showed that the highest and lowest access to health care based on numerical taxonomy belonged to cities of Kermanshah [0.61] and Salas Babajani [1.07]. Also, most towns of Ilam, Lorestan and Kurdistan provinces are underdeveloped and developing, while the most towns of Kermanshah and Hamadan provinces were placed in the developed region

Conclusion: this study showed that there was a large gap between the cities of one province and also among the provinces in terms of the access to and degree of development in health care resources. Therefore, it is suggested that a higher priority in terms of health resource allocation should be placed on the developing and underdeveloped areas in order to reduce these disparities

Determinant of road traffic crash fatalities in Iran: a longitudinal econometric analysis

Background: Injuries and deaths from road traffic crashes are one of the main public health problems throughout the world. This study aimed to identify determinants of fatality traffic accident in Iran for the twenty-span year from 1991 to 2011

Methods: A time series analysis [1991-2011] was used to examine the effects of some of the key explanatory factors [GDP per capita, number of doctors per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization, unemployment rate and motorization rate] on deaths from road traffic in Iran. In order to examine long- and short-run effects of variables, we employed autoregressive distributed lag [ARDL] approach and error correction method [ECM]. The data for the study was obtained from the Central Bank of Iran [CBI], Iranian Statistical Center [ISC] and Legal medical organizations [LMO]

Results: GDP per capita, doctor per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization and motorization rate had a significant impact on fatality from road traffic in Iran. We did not observe any short- and long-term effects of the unemployment rate on fatality from road traffic

Conclusion: GDP per capita, doctor per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization and motorization rate were identified as main determinant of fatality from road traffic accidents in Iran. We hope the results of the current study enable health policy-makers to understand better the factors affecting deaths from road traffic accidents in the country

Satisfaction of Iranian medical universities' faculty members towards holding Shahid Motahari annual educational festival

Introduction: Shahid Motahari Annual Educational Festival aims to improve the quality of medical education in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has held since 2008. The present study was performed to determine the satisfaction level of Iranian medical universities' faculty members about holding Shahid Motahari Annual Educational Festival during the past six years, from 2008 to 2014

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 473 faculty members [FMs] including deputies and educational administrators, managers, and faculty members of medical education development centers, members of scientific committees, and faculty members who participated in Shahid Motahari Festival from 42 medical sciences universities in Iran. Data collection instruments were two reliable and valid questionnaires on the background and also participants' satisfaction towards Shahid Motahari Educational Festival. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software, version 14

Results: Among all participants, 30 FMs [6.3%] were educational deputies, 36 FMs [7.6%] managers of medical education development centers, 226 FMs [56.2%] members of scientific committees, 29 FMs [6.1%] members of the national committees, 343 FMs [27.5%] attendees, and 264 FMs [55.8%] had participated for retraining. The total satisfaction level of the participants was 73.3% which shows a good satisfaction level

Conclusion: The results identified the main important strength points such as "proposals' review process at the country level" and weakness points such as "organizing the festival"