title: Impact of rural health development programme in the Islamic Republic of Iran on rural-urban disparities in health indicators.
abstract: By 1979 50 years of uneven development and modernization by governments prior to the Islamic Revolution had left rural parts of the Islamic Republic of Iran with extremely low economic and health status. This paper reports on the impact of the rural health development programme implemented as an effective and inexpensive way to improve the heath of the rural population, especially mothers and children. It describes the system of rural health centres, health houses and community health workers (behvarz) and demonstrates the effectiveness of the programme through declining measures of rural-urban disparities in health indicators. The implications of inexpensive rural health policies for other countries in the region such as Afghanistan and Central Asian countries with a similar sociocultural structure are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Fayetteville State University Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA. aaghajanian@uncfsu.edu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aghajanian
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Mehryar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmadnia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kazemipour
mesh_terms: D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D003150:Community Health Workers / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D006302:Health Services Research; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012939:Social Planning; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires