. Mohammad Hadian; . Pouran Raeissi; . Mahboobeh Shali; . Touraj Harati Khalilabad; . Noureddin Niknam
Volume 9, Issue 10 , October 2019, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: In the development perspective of each country, it is important to pay attentionto the health sector and improve health indicators; therefore, planning in training and ...
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INTRODUCTION: In the development perspective of each country, it is important to pay attentionto the health sector and improve health indicators; therefore, planning in training and distribution ofhuman resources in the health sector is an important factor to achieve the health system goals. Theaim of this study was to investigate the effect of changes in health sector human resources on infantmortality rate (IMR), maternal mortality rate (MMR), and under‑five mortality rate (U5MR) in Iran.METHODS: This was an econometric study (data panel) that conducted retrospectively and useddata from the period 2006 to 2017 among Iranian provinces. Three regression models were used todetermine the effect of health sector human resources (physicians, nurses, and paramedical staff)on the IMR, MMR, and U5MR. The random‑effects model was selected over the fixed‑effects modelto assess the effect of health sector human resources on health outcomes.RESULTS: Results showed that the number of physicians in different models has a stronger impacton these mortality rates than those of nurses and paramedics, so that a 1% increase in the numberof physicians leads to 2.1%, 3.8%, and 2.2% decrease in IMR, MMR, and U5MR, respectively.Furthermore, per capita income has a bigger impact on these mortality rates than human healthresources.CONCLUSION: Increasing the number of human resources in the health sector, especially thenumber of physicians, by investing in these resources by providing educational facilities, plays animportant role in improving the mothers’ and infants’ health indicators.
