Futures studies in the role of Persian Medicine-based lifestyle in the health system

Urban and industrial life and the gradual dissociation from a healthy lifestyle at the individual, family and social levels have created challenges for the health system, which experts consider to be the consequences of modern life. The aim of the current research is to investigate the possible consequences and challenges of the health system due to the changes and developments of the lifestyle in the country in the next 10 years, using a future research approach, and to reveal the possible answers of Persian Medicine to improving lifestyle.

This applied research is conducted using a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) in terms of data collection. In order to analyze the data, inferential statistics analysis and the methods of "interaction analysis" (with the help of Micmac software) and "future wheel", which are among future research techniques, have been used. In order to interview and distribute questionnaires, the statistical population of Persian medical experts, managers of the Ministry of Health, and faculty members of the School of Persian Medicine of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected.

Based on the findings of this research, 17 key variables affecting the future were identified. Subsequent implementation of interaction analysis method on these variables, revealed the mechanisms of influence between them, and also highlighted four factors of "urbanization and population movement", "narcotics", "prepared foods" and "air pollutants" as future-making driving forces. In the next step, by discovering the relationship between the factors, the future wheel method helped the analyses to make sense in the future horizon.

According to the findings of this research based on the very serious factors and consequences that will impose many challenges on the health system, it seems that one of the most important ways out of the crises facing the country is to modify lifestyle and use the scientific and cultural capacity of Persian Medicine.