Background: The Covid-19 pandemic affected the performance of Primary Health Care (PHC) worldwide. This study was performed to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the utilization of PHC in Iran. Method: A before and after study conducted between 2019 and 2021. 56 medical science universities across the country were studied. The data extracted from Electronic Health Record (EHR) is entitled “SIB”. Three major indicators included a weighted average of essential services provided by (physician, dentist, mental health expert, midwife, nutritionist), percentage of actual delivered service, and percentage of customer satisfaction was selected as a criterion for assessing the PHC. Descriptive statistics and analytical statistics (Wilcoxon test) using SPSS 16 software were used for the data analyzing and reporting. Results: There was a significant difference among the examined dimensions before and after Covid-19 separation in all studied indicators except the level of percentage of customer satisfaction (P < 0.05). So that the percentage of actually delivered services decreased about 1% and the weighted average of essential services provided by a physician, dentist, midwife, mental health experts, and nutritionist decreased 627.95, 718.81, 460.85, 2914.66, 2410.65 numbers, respectively. Conclusion: Covid-19 Pandemic has affected the performance of Iranian PHC at the beginning and overall, has a negative consequence on utilization of services. Preparedness to respond to pandemics and develop programs and interventions is necessary to cover the weaknesses of the PHC.

Background: Given the challenges of governments to deliver primary health care (PHC), engaging private sector in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) can be effective policy. The aim of present study is to review the experiences of implementing PPP policy in PHC. Methods: This scoping review study was conducted in 2019 using the framework proposed by Arkesy and O’Malley. Required data were collected through search the related keywords in databases, manual search of some journals, websites, and other sources of information and through references check, from January 2000 to May 2019. All studies, which focused on the results of PPP in PHC, and published in English or Persian were included in the study. Results: A total of 108 articles were included in the study. The studies were mostly conducted in low- and middle-income countries. The quantitative studies have demonstrated the success of this policy in improving PHC indicators. Based on the qualitative studies PPP in PHC has many benefits, including access improvement, economic benefits, and service quality enhancement. Conclusions: The present study provides useful information on the experiences of different countries in the field of PPP in PHC that can be used by experts and decision makers to decide whether to engage the private sector in the form of PPP model.

Health literacy(HL) is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain process and understand basic health information and services required for making appropriate health decisions. Effective interventions to improve older people’s HL have become increasingly important. The purpose of this study is to conduct a review of interventions aimed at enhancing the HL of older people. Relevant information was gathered from various databases including PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, and Web of Science. Additionally, a manual search of related journals and Google Scholar, a search of the reference lists of selected articles, and a search of unpublished sources were also conducted up to 30 August 2024. Reporting quality assessment was performed using CONSORT: 2010, JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Quasi-Experimental Studies, and “Quality Assessment Criteria for Survey Research Reports”. A total of 21 articles were included in this study. The interventions conducted in high-income countries were found to be more effective compared to those conducted in middle and low-income countries. Furthermore, interventions carried out at the community level were more effective than those performed in nursing homes. Educational interventions were more effective than lifestyle modification interventions, and interventions carried out in a single dimension were more effective than multidimensional interventions. Additionally, interventions that utilized technology were found to be more effective. Based on the findings, community-based interventions that encompass a one-dimensional approach, incorporating the use of technology and considering the duration of the intervention, are more recommended.

Background: Of the most important implications and complaints in the elderly group of the population, is oral and dental health problems. This study aimed to assess oral health- related quality of life in older people. Methods: To data collection, databases were searched including PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, SID, MagIran, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and scholar google The keywords were “older adults", “Geriatric” Elderly", "Older", “Aged”, "Ageing", "Oral health", "Oral hygiene" and "Quality of life", "QOL. For manual searching, several specialized journals of related scope as well as the finalized articles' reference list were searched. Studies from 1st Jan 2000 to 30th Jan 2017 were included. Studies were subjected to meta-analysis to calculate indexes, using CMA:2 (Comprehensive Meta-Analysis) software. Results: Totally, 3707 articles were searched that 48 of them were subjected to the oral and dental health-related quality of life in 59 groups of the elderly population with the mean age of 73.57+6.62 in the 26 countries. The obtained percentage values of dental and oral health were 80.2% (0-60), 14.8% (0-12), 16.4% (0-70), 22% (0-14 or 0-59) and 19.2% (0-196) for GOHAI with the additive method, GOHAI with Simple Count Method, OHIP14 with the additive method, OHIP-14 with Simple Count method and OHIP-49 with additive method indexes, respectively. Conclusion: The elderly group of the population had no proper oral health-related quality of life. Regarding the importance and necessity of oral and dental health and its effect on general health care in the target group, it is recommended to improve dental hygiene in the mentioned group of population.

Background: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, preliminary research has shown that some risk-associated conditions increase death and severe complications of the disease, hypertension being one of them. Thus, numerous meta-analyses have been conducted to explore this issue. Therefore, this umbrella review aims to perform a meta-analysis of the meta-analyses to estimate the prevalence and associated risks of hypertension in patients with COVID-19. Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Embase, and Cochrane databases were searched for the published meta-analyses up to January 1, 2022. Google Scholar, citation check, reference check, and Grey literature were also manually searched. A random-effect model approach was used for analysis. Results: The overall death rate was estimated at 12%. Hypertension was present in 25% of the patients as a comorbid disease. The overall RR for death, disease severity, and the possibility of ICU admission were estimated at 1.79 [1.68–1.89 with 95% CI], 1.74 [1.66–1.83 with 95% CI], and 1.91 [1.48–2.34 with 95% CI], respectively. The meta-regression results showed that being “male” significantly increases the risk of disease severity and ICU admission. Conclusions: The results indicated that hypertension is a common comorbid disease in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, which significantly increases mortality risk, the severity of the disease, and the probability of ICU admission. Systematic review registration: This study has been registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021231844).

Background: The initial purpose of healthcare systems around the world is to promote and maintain the health of the population. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a new approach by which a healthcare system can reach its goals. World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized maximum population coverage, health service coverage, and financial protection, as three dimensions of UHC. In progress for achieving UHC, recognizing the influential factors allows us to accelerate such progress. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the influential factors to achieve UHC in Iran. Methods: This is a multi-method study was conducted in four phases: First, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify the factors in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest, Cochrane library, and Science Direct databases, and hand searching google scholar search engine. For recognizing the unmentioned factors, a qualitative study consisting of one session of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and five semi-structured interviews with experts was designed. The extracted factors were merged and categorized by round table discussion. Finally, the pre-categorized factors were refined and re-categorized under the health system’s control knobs framework during three expert panel sessions. Results: Finally, 33 studies were included. Eight hundred two factors were extracted through systematic review and 96 factors through FGD and interviews (totally, 898). After refining them by the experts’ panel, 105 factors were categorized within the control knob framework (financing 19, payment system7, Organization 23, regulation and supervision 33, Behavior 11, and Others 12). The majority of the identified factors were related to the “regulation and supervision” dimension, whilst the “payment system” entailed the fewest. The political commitment during political turmoil, excessive attention to the treatment, referral system, paying out of pocket(OOP) and protection against high costs, economic growth, sanctions, conflict of interests, weakness of the information system, prioritization of services, health system fragmented, lack of managerial support and lack of standard benefits packages were identified as the leading factors on the way to UHC. Conclusion: Considering the distinctive role of the context in policymaking, the identification of the factors affecting UHC accompanying by the countries’ experiences about UHC, can boost our speed toward it. Moreover, adopting a long-term plan toward UHC based on these factors and the robust implementation of it pave the way for Iran to achieve better outcomes comparing to their efforts.