Assessment of Health Equity Indicators in Iran

According to the World Health Organization's approach on health and the importance of the social determinants of health on provision of public health, a set of 52 indicators were established to assess the equity of health in Iran. The health care‘s function will be evaluated based on these indicators. In this study we attempted to introduce a new instrument and assess the ability of these indicators in measuring the equity of health. In this descriptive-analytic study, by reviewing the national and international resources, in order to assessing the appropriateness of equity in health indicators a new instrument was introduced and validated by the expert's opinions. Finally each of the 52 Iranian health equity Indicators evaluated by using this instrument. The instrument’s internal consistency measured in a pilot study on 20 indicator that previously confirmed by the World Health Organization and Cranach’s Alpha was 0.9 -0.975. The evaluation of the health equity indicators using mentioned instrument showed that six from 52 health equity indicators did not match the appropriate standard to be used as a national determinant of health disparities. This study showed that six from 52 Iranian health equity indicators did not appropriate. It proposed that some indicator such as vaccination coverage and housing could be added to these indicators.