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A policy review of the community health worker programme in Iran

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Abstract

Iran's Community Health Worker (CHW) programme survived as an integral element of the health system during a period when many other nations’ CHW programmes collapsed and therefore warrants detailed analysis of the policies supporting the programme. We draw on a wide range of information about the Iranian programme and from this analysis draw important lessons on how to improve rural population health outcomes through Primary Health Care.

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Acknowledgements

This work was made possible through funding provided by the Teasdale-Corti Global Health Research Partnership Programme. We acknowledge the support given by the facilitators of the project, most notably the University of Ottawa and the University of the Western Cape. We also acknowledge Dr A Marandi (the former minister of health in Iran), Dr AR Jamshidi and Dr G Heidari (the former heads of DNDHP) for reviewing the policy summary and providing comments for further clarification of policy contents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of Public Health, Flinders University, Health Science Building North Ridge Precinct, Registry Road, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia

    Sara Javanparast

  2. Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, Health Science Building, North Ridge Precinct, Registry Road, Bedford Park, 5042, SA, Australia

    Fran Baum

  3. Institute of Population Health, The University of Ottawa, 216-1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada

    Ronald Labonte

  4. School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Modderdam Road, Bellville, 7535, South Africa

    David Sanders

  5. Dean's Office, Boushehr University of Medical Science, Office of Chancellor, Moallem Street, Boushehr, 7514633341, Iran

    Gholamreza Heidari

  6. Division of Network Development and Health Promotion, Ministry of Health, Deputy of Health, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Corner of Hafez and Jomhoori Streets, Tehran, Iran

    Sakineh Rezaie

Authors
  1. Sara Javanparast
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  2. Fran Baum
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  3. Ronald Labonte
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  4. David Sanders
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  5. Gholamreza Heidari
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  6. Sakineh Rezaie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Javanparast.

Additional information

The authors analyze the policies in Iran that supported productive use of community health workers during a period when in many other countries, community health worker programs collapsed.

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Javanparast, S., Baum, F., Labonte, R. et al. A policy review of the community health worker programme in Iran. J Public Health Pol 32, 263–276 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2011.7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2011.7

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