The Impact of Family Physician Program on Mother and Child Health Indices in Rural Population Auspices of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences and Health Care Services, Iran; 2009

The implementation of Rural Insurance and Family Physician Programs with the intention of reforming and improving the delivery of health care services nationwide started in 2005. However, the functionality of these programs has not been investigated yet. This study was done to determine the effect of Family Physician Program on mother and child health indices for rural population auspices of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences and Health Care Services (MUMS). The mean values of eight health indices of mothers and children living in 19 rural districts (Khorasan Razavi Province) of MUMS four years before and three years after the implementation of Family Physician Program (2001-2004 and 2005-2007, respectively) were compared using Analysis of Variance. The data were gathered by the employees of rural health houses (Behvarzes). As the program was being implemented in all rural areas simultaneously, there was no possibility to form any control group. Therefore, the mean values of indices for the experimental group before and after the program were compared. Although the results did not show any significant difference between the mean values of indices before and after the implementation of the program, the trend of indices for the seven years of the study (2001-2007) confirmed the positive impact of the program. The overall improvement observed in mother and child indices after the implementation of Family Physician program can be viewed as the promising future outlook of the program to bring about further health improvements for the rural population.