Health needs assessment of the residents of the informal settlements in South‑Eastern Iran: A case study of Bam city
نویسندگان
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Health Services Management, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy, School of Management and Medical Education, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Full Professor, Health Management Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Associate Professor, Department of Health Services Management, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran/ Health Economics Policy Research Center, Tehran Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
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doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: Informal settlements are considered as one of the social problems in societies. Asthe residents do not have adequate access to basic services, including health services, their healthis at risk. This study was conducted to evaluate the access to health services and determine thehealth needs of informal settlements in Bam city.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross‑sectional study was carried out in the spring of 2020 inBam. The sample size was 400 residents of informal settlements in Bam, and the multi‑stage randomcluster sampling was used. A researcher‑made questionnaire was used to collect the requireddata. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using the content validity, and its reliabilitywas 85% by Cronbach’s alpha. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 23 software anddescriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation, and percentage) as well as analyticalstatistics (Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests).RESULTS: More than 50% of the individuals had good access to general practitioners and healthcenters. However, over 50% had poor access to dental, para‑clinical, specialist, and hospital services.Furthermore, 49.3% of the people assessed their health status as poor in the previous year. A totalof 46 items in the areas of communicable and non‑communicable diseases, women’s health, mentaland social health and addiction, environmental health, etc., were identified as the most importanthealth needs of the informal settlement residents.CONCLUSION: Informal settlements are facing various health problems including environmentalhealth, mental and social health, and addiction, meeting which requires collaboration of allstakeholders as well as provision of a comprehensive program and appropriate service packages.
