title: Customer's self-audit to improve the technical quality of maternity care in Tabriz: a community trial.
abstract: Pregnant women have a major role to play in assessing and improving their own quality of care. This study in Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran, aimed to assess the effectiveness of an intervention for pregnant women-based on education and support groups and involvement in quality assessment activities-in order to improve the technical quality of public maternity care at public health centres. The intervention phase began in September 2011 and lasted 8 months. The outcome measure was health-care providers' degree of adherence to the Iranian maternity care standards. An intervention group of 92 pregnant women from 10 health centres was compared with a control group of 93 pregnant women from 11 centres. Logistic regression analysis showed that the self-assessed technical quality of maternity care received by the women was significantly better in the intervention that the control group for several of the standards concerning clinical examinations, maternal education and vitamin and mineral supplements.
authors.affiliation: Iranian Centre of Excellence in Health Management, Department of Health Services Management, Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gholipour
authors.affiliation: Tabriz Health Services Management Research Centre, Department of Health Services Management, Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tabrizi
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Research Centre, Faculty of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asghari-Jafarabadi
authors.affiliation: Iranian Centre of Excellence in Health Management, Department of Health Services Management, Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iezadi
authors.affiliation: East Azerbaijan Provincial Health Centre, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Farshbaf
authors.affiliation: Tabriz Health Centre, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rahbar-Farzam
authors.affiliation: Tabriz Health Centre, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Afsharniya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy; D058996:Quality Improvement; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D055815:Young Adult