Priority strategic directions in adolescent health in Iran based on the WHO's Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: In line with the World Health Organization's Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance, the goal of the current research was to identify critical strategies for adolescents' health and to determine the role and distribution of responsibilities among the leading players in the field of adolescent health in Iran. METHODS: The current qualitative and applied study is part of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education's "Adolescent, Youth and School Health" plan to develop the "National Adolescent Health Plan Document" in 2020. First, stakeholder analysis was done, then a pool of nationally appropriate strategies was selected from the list of priority strategies recommended by the WHO in the AA-HA! through several group sessions. After that, the experts selected priority strategies based on the criteria of feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, guaranteed resources, coordination with other plans and temporal priority, scoring, and executive priorities. Eventually, the priority strategies were assigned to different players/stakeholders in the field over several sessions bearing in mind the methods of implementation and the target groups. RESULTS: The experts identified 58 priority strategies/actions for adolescent health under the seven priority areas of positive development, sexual protection, reproductive health, mental health, substance abuse, self-harm, violence, unintentional injury, communicable and non-communicable diseases, nutrition, and physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: The highest identified priority areas were in the areas of vaccination; special health care package for service providers; training and education to promote health literacy and self-care, life skills, sexual awareness, and prevention/protection against violence; community-based mental health services, planning for adolescents' spare time, substance use prevention.

Insights for speed management among Iranian drivers: a social marketing formative research study.

BACKGROUND: Road traffic crashes are among the leading causes of death and disability in the world, particularly in low and middle-income countries. This study aimed at to conduct a social marketing formative research to inform the development of a campaign to manage driving speed on the intercity roads of Iran. METHODS: To carry out the social marketing formative research, a qualitative and quantitative study were conducted. Also, a literature review of the speed management strategies was carried out and an analysis of traffic accident data and speeding violations was performed in selected provinces during 2019 and 2020. RESULTS: Based on the findings of the qualitative study, perceived sense of lack of speed control, poor monitoring system, and law enforcement are the main reasons drivers exceed the speed limit. They mostly suggest using punitive levers and more stringent law enforcement practices for speed management. Literature reviews also confirm that to successfully develop an effective speed management plan a set of measures should be implemented together, including road safety engineering, raising awareness, social marketing strategies, and finally strict law enforcement. The overriding findings of the formative research revealed that to persuade Iranian drivers to respect the speed limit, the messages of the campaign should focus on strict law enforcement in the selected corridors. CONCLUSIONS: In the minds of the Iranian audience, strict law enforcement is of paramount importance for a speed management strategy to work; hence it should be taken into consideration when tailoring the campaign messages. From the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that to manage speed on intercity routes in Iran, a social marketing campaign is needed to encourage compliance with speed limits.