Trends of geographic distribution of general practitioners in the public health sector of Iran
نویسندگان
1 Department of Management and Health Economic, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran,
2 Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, School of Public Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
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4 Department of Medical Information Sciences, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran,
5 Department of Management and Health Economic, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran,
6 Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, School of Public Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: Proper distribution of general practitioners (GPs) is one of the challenges in allhealth systems. This study aimed to investigate geographical distribution of GPs in public healthsector in Iran between 2010 and 2016.METHODS: The study is a descriptive–cross‑sectional study. The population of provinces wasextracted from Iran’s National Statistic Center, while information on GPs was gathered from deputyof statistic and information technology in Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Data analysis wascarried out using descriptive statistics, Gini coefficient (GC), and by drawing geographical distributionmap of GPs. Data analysis was performed by excel 2013, Stata V.14, and Arc GIS software.RESULTS: The results of calculating the number of GPs per 100,000 population in Iran showed that,in year 2010, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province had the highest (10.39) and Alborz Province hadthe lowest (0.66) number of per capita GPs. The highest number of GPs per 100,000 populationamong Iran’s provinces belonged to Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari (8.97), while the lowest belongedto Tehran (0.28) in year 2016. The GC was 0.31 in year 2010 and 0.283 for 2011. The lowest GCbelonged to year 2012 (GC = 0.272), while the largest coefficient belonged to year 2016 (0.356).CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of this study, the distribution of GPs in public health sectorof Iran in between 2010 and 2016 showed inequality. Therefore, along with increasing the numberof GPs working in public health sector, it is necessary to pay attention to their distribution. Furtherstudies are needed to investigate inequality of GPs within and between the provinces.
