Determining and prioritizing indicators of public health coverage in Iran: A qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: Universal health coverage is an important step towards achieving and benefiting from health services. To measure universal health coverage, appropriate indicators are needed. This study was conducted to select priority indicators for use in general health measurements. Materials and Methods: This study is a qualitative study. The population of the research was experts in the country and the sampling was done purposefully. The study was conducted in three stages. In the first phase, 393 indicators related to public health coverage were selected by reviewing texts related to international and domestic indicators and use of experts;#39 opinion, and duplicates were removed. In the second phase, using valid sources such as WHO, Millenium Development Goals, and Sustainable Development Goals of Universal Health Coverage, 100- Core Health Indicators and using expert opinions, 40 indicators were selected for the final survey. In the third stage, 47 experts ranked these 40 indicators. Results: The most important indicators of universal health coverage from the viewpoints of experts were death rate of pregnant women, vaccination coverage of children under 5 years old, life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, death rate of children under 5 years of age, death rate of children under 1 years of age, high blood sugar levels in adults, access to healthy water, death rates due to cancer and general health insurance. Also in the ranking, according to the Healt Indicators of Iran, amoung demographic indicators, death of pregnant women amoung the indicators of diseases, the coverage rate of vaccinations amoung the indicators of health coverage, access to healthy water and amoung the health system indicators, the amount of public insurance coverage were the first priorities. Conclusion: In general, until the acquisition, more precise determination and prioritization, the indexes ranked among the top ten amoung 40 indciators, and also the first priotity indicator of each of the four components of population and mortality, diseases and risk factors, the coverage of health services, and the health system should be taken into account in reaching the goals of universal health coverage