People's perspectives about the role of physicians and health specialists: Iranian health perception Survey [IHPS]

ABSTRACT

To identify community views on the role of physicians and health specialists on people's health. This was a nationwide cross sectional study. A random sample of 27883 individuals aged between 18 and 65 years were entered into the study. Each respondent was asked to indicate the role that health professionals play in the public community health. In all, 45.2% of the respondents indicated that health professionals had very influence in shaping public community health while only 1.8% of people believed [they have no role]. However, about 30% of people indicated a limited role for health professionals. The findings suggest that about one-third of people believe health professional do not have influential role in public health. This might be an indicator of people's access to health care and merits future investigation