This study aimed to explore the current challenges of Iran’s Iranian Primary Health Care (PHC) network and possible ways forward.

PHC network was established in 1985. It remains a core instrument of health care delivery. However, it faces several challenges that can threaten its effective functioning.

We conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 26 key stakeholders. We used the deductive content analysis approach. World Health Organization’s health system framework guided our analyses. Data were analysed using MAXQDA software. To enhance data triangulation, we reviewed PHC national related plans, bylaws, and national and international published reports.

PHC network experiences financial challenges and fails to respond fully to the emerging population’s needs due to unfair distribution of resources and a lack of community health workers for PHC and a sustainable financing model for PHC. Furthermore, the insurance package is not well integrated into the PHC network system. Policy interests and resource commitments for innovative, preventive, and health promotion initiatives are lacking. Innovative, preventive, and health promotion initiatives should become the highest priority for policymakers. Well-trained community health professionals, active community participation, private sector engagements and active involvement of non-government organisations are fundamental for a well-functioning PHC network in Iran, especially to foster the delivery of evidence-based initiatives.

Creating a stable and long-term relationship called ‘longitudinality’ between the population and general practitioners is crucial for the family physician program. The constant change of family physicians (FPs) can deteriorate longitudinality. This study aims to reveal what factors people usually consider when choosing a new FP or changing their current FP.

A qualitative study with a thematic analysis approach was carried out in Ilam province, Iran, in 2019. Purposeful sampling with a maximum variation strategy was followed to select the key informants. We did 34 interviews with following groups: patients (rural residents); FPs; and experts from Iran Health Insurance Organization, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, and Health Network Development Center. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis to identify and contextualize the preferences of people in choosing a FP in rural areas. All the processes related to data coding and emerging themes were carried out using MAXQDA 2012 software.

The content of the interviews was categorized into 2 main themes, 6 sub-themes, and 39 codes. The first theme was ‘family physician characteristics’ including four sub-themes: general behaviors, social and physical characteristics, professional expertise, and pharmaceutical prescriptions. The second theme was ‘health center’ consisting of two sub-themes including location and physical features and properties of the health center.

Some of the factors extracted from the interviews may have a different effect on the choice of people with different demographics. For instance, patients may have different ideas about the age, gender, years of medical practice, and finally, language and origin of the birthplace of FPs. Quantitative studies are needed to rank the factors identified in this study according to their significance for choosing FP and reveal patients’ preferences for each factor.

This study was to investigate the relationships among health behaviors and quality of life (QOL) and to test a proposed model among people with hypertension and concomitant chronic kidney disease (CKD) in primary care. In addition, the mediation effect of modifiable risk factors between self-care health behaviors and QOL was examined.

This study was prospective, conducted in the centers of primary medical care in the period from January 2018 to January 2020. In total, 170 patients diagnosed with hypertension and CKD at least 12 months previously were included in this study. The following parameters were measured: self-efficacy, self-care health behaviors with the subscales of health responsibility, exercise, consumption of a healthy diet, stress management, and smoking cessation; modifiable risk score; and QOL (assessed using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey instrument).

Self-efficacy had a significantly positive direct effect on self-care health behaviors, with a standardized regression coefficient of 0.87 (P = 0.007), a negative indirect effect on risk factors, with a standardized regression coefficient of 0.11 (P = 0.006), and a positive indirect effect on QOL, with a standardized regression coefficient of 0.62 (P = 0.008). Self-care health behaviors had a significantly positive direct effect on QOL, with a standardized regression coefficient of 0.72 (P = 0.012); there was also an indirect effect of 0.053 (P = 0.004). The direct effect of risk factors on QOL was significant, with a standardized regression coefficient of 0.44 (P = 0.018). The direct effect of self-care health behaviors on QOL was 0.77 (P = 0.008), which has been reduced to 0.72 (P = 0.012). The reduced effect of 0.05 was significant (P = 0.004), confirming the mediating role of modified risk factors.

This study indicates health-promoting behaviors in hypertensive patients with CKD have a potential impact on their QOL in primary care. Primary care physicians should focus on motivation strategies to encourage individuals to perform self-care health-promoting behaviors associated with the improved QOL, in order to achieve better outcomes in risk factor management.

E-cigarettes (ECs) are gaining popularity in Turkey among smokers. With the rapid increase of EC consumption, it is important to ascertain how family physicians (FPs) perceive ECs as they play a key role in providing smoking cessation services.

Our main objectives were to determine FPs’ level of awareness and harm reduction perceptions of ECs and to delineate the factors associated with their counseling practices.

This was a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical components. Data were collected through questionnaires. Questions mainly focused on demographic characteristics, knowledge and own use of ECs, general attitudes towards ECs, and daily practices while performing counseling on tobacco use. In order to control confounding factors, logistic regression analysis was performed.

Among a total of 271 FPs, 49.1% (n = 133) were males and the median age (IQR) was 41 years (32–46). Almost one-fifth of the FPs (n = 52) reported that they did not provide counseling services to their smoking patients. Only 26.6% (n = 72) of the FPs stated that they felt confident enough to advise patients on smoking cessation. Of the FPs, 6.6% have stated that they have recommended ECs to their patients for smoking cessation with the strategy of harm reduction. Factors associated with providers’ recommendation of ECs to their patients as a harm reduction strategy included ‘believing that ECs help smokers to quit, ECs could be vaped in closed areas, and ECs were healthier than combustible tobacco products’.

In our study, FPs stated lack of confidence to advice patients on smoking cessation. Furthermore, they recommended ECs to their smoking patients as a harm reduction strategy. FPs’ confidence should be increased with the trainings based on recent evidence on ECs.

Studying the effect of primary health care development when simultaneously implemented with health insurance schemes assesses effectiveness and use of health care services and gives us insight on how to develop such interventions in different countries.

To analyze the impact of health insurance and the family physician program on total hospitalizations, and the relation between avoidable hospitalizations and access to family physicians among the rural population in Iran.

We conducted an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis of monthly hospitalization rates between the years of 2003 and 2014 to assess the immediate and gradual effects of these reforms on total hospitalization rates in the rural areas of Tehran province. In addition, we used a sample of 22 570 hospitalizations between 2006 and 2013 to develop a logistic regression model to measure the association between access to a family physician and avoidable hospitalizations.

ITS analysis showed that there was an immediate increase of about 1.96 hospitalizations per 1000 inhabitants (P<0.0001, CI=1.58, 2.34) hospitalization rates after the reforms. This was followed by a significant increase of about 0.089 per 1000 inhabitants (P<0.0001, CI=0.07, 0.1). Hospitalization increase continued up to four years after the policy implementation. Following that, hospitalization rates decreased among the rural population (a decrease of 0.066 per 1000, P<0.0001, CI=−0.084, −0.048). Studying the hospitalizations that occurred between 2006 and 2013 showed that there were 4106 avoidable hospitalizations from among a sample of 22 570 hospitalizations. Results of logistic regression models including gender, age and access to family physician variables showed that there was no statistical relation between access to a family physician and avoidable hospitalizations.

Reforms had access effect and caused increased hospital services uses in people with unmet needs. Also the reforms did not decrease avoidable hospitalizations, and therefore had no efficiency effect.

Reproductive health includes the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide. In this context, both women and men have rights. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the obstacles in using these rights and to describe perceptions on marriage and family planning (FP) of Syrian women and men and to increase awareness for developing new policies on the Primary Health Care.

The study was conducted using qualitative method, consisting of in-depth interviews with 54 participants; 43 women and 11 men who had to emigrate from varied regions of Syria at different times since 2011. Syrian women living in Hatay, in the south of Turkey were identified from Primary Health Care Center. Most of the Syrian women had given birth to the first two children before the age of 20 years. The interviewees were selected by purposive and snowball sampling.

The result was examined under seven headings: knowledge about FP and contraceptive methods, hesitation about contraceptive methods, emotional pressure of family and fear of maintaining marriage, embarrassing of talking about sexuality and contraception, the effects of belief and culture on contraception, psychological reflections of war, and changes in the perception of health during the process of immigration. The most significant factors affecting the approaches to FP and contraceptive methods of the women in this study were determined to be education, traditions, economic status, and religious beliefs. The most important factors affecting participants’ FP and contraceptive method approaches are education, cultural beliefs, economic status, and religious beliefs.

The primary healthcare centers are at a very strategical point for offering FP services to help address patients’ unmet contraceptive needs and improve pregnancy outcomes.

More attention should be paid to social determinants that influence the access to reproductive health. Moreover, efforts can be done to address gender inequality that intercept FP. The most important strategy for primary health systems to follow the gender barriers that hinder access to FP services and men are empowered to share responsibility for FP.

Family physicians are role models for their societies in disaster management and have an important place in it. This study was carried out during the specialty training of the residents, who are currently family physicians fighting against COVID-19 in the field, and was aimed to identify the awareness levels of residents regarding the roles and duties of family physicians before, during, and after disasters and to increase their awareness of disaster medicine and management.

The duties and responsibilities of a family physician in disasters should be a part of their specialty training. This study has contributed to the limited literature, increased awareness, and opened a new avenue of research for studies to be conducted with family physicians by demonstrating the current situation of family physicians in disaster management.

This is an observational and descriptive study. The knowledge, experience, opinions, willingness, attitudes of the residents, and the awareness levels of the residents regarding their roles and duties in a disaster were evaluated along with their sociodemographic information. The surveys were applied in the family medicine clinics of the all residents by the interview method (n = 233).

Only 9.2% of the residents stated that they had received training on disaster medicine where they currently work. The knowledge level of the residents on this subject was found as ‘Unsure’. In total, 80% of the residents stated that family physicians should have a role in disasters. It was found that 83.3% of the residents had never joined a disaster drill, 94.3% had never participated in making or applying a disaster plan, and 97.7% had never worked in any disaster.

The residents participating in the study lacked not only information on disaster management but also experience. The residents’ willingness to receive training, work voluntarily, significantly question the curriculum, and specialize in disaster medicine were a positive outcome.

The family physician is key to facilitating access to psychiatric treatment for young people with first-episode psychosis, and this involvement can reduce aversive events in pathways to care. Those who seek help from primary care tend to have longer intervals to psychiatric care, and some people receive ongoing psychiatric treatment from the family physician.

Our objective is to understand the role of the family physician in help-seeking, recognition and ongoing management of first-episode psychosis.

We will use a mixed-methods approach, incorporating health administrative data, electronic medical records (EMRs) and qualitative methodologies to study the role of the family physician at three points on the pathway to care. First, help-seeking: we will use health administrative data to examine access to a family physician and patterns of primary care use preceding the first diagnosis of psychosis; second, recognition: we will identify first-onset cases of psychosis in health administrative data, and look back at linked EMRs from primary care to define a risk profile for undetected cases; and third, management: we will examine service provision to identified patients through EMR data, including patterns of contacts, prescriptions and referrals to specialised care. We will then conduct qualitative interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders to better understand the trends observed in the quantitative data.

These findings will provide an in-depth description of first-episode psychosis in primary care, informing strategies to build linkages between family physicians and psychiatric services to improve transitions of care during the crucial early stages of psychosis.

None.

The health sector has always relied on technologies. According to World Health Organization, they form the backbone of the services to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness and disease. It is increasingly viewed as the most promising tool for improving the overall quality, safety and efficiency of the health delivery system.

This was to assess the current situation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in primary healthcare in the terms of describing and classifying the existing work, identify gaps and exploring the personal experiences and the challenges of ICTs application in the primary healthcare.

A mixed research method in the form of sequential explanatory design was applied. In the quantitative phase a cross-sectional study was conducted among 172 family physicians using a predesigned questionnaire. Followed by qualitative data collection among 35 participants through focused group discussions.

Nearly half of the physicians have ICTs in their work and they were trained on it. None of them developed a community-based research using ICTs technology. Training on ICTs showed a statistically significant difference regarding the availability and the type of ICTs present in the workplace (P<0.05). Focused group discussion revealed that the majority of the participants believe that there is poor commitment of policymaker toward ICTs utilization in the primary care. Nearly 97% thinks that there is insufficient budget allocated for ICTs utilization in the workplace. Almost 88% of the participants demanded more incentives for ICTs users than non-user at the workplace.

ICTs resources are underutilized by health information professionals. Lack of funds, risk of instability of the electric supply and lack of incentives for ICTs users were the most common barriers to ICTs implementation thus a steady steps toward budget allocation and continuous training is needed.

The aim of our study was to develop a survey for family physicians to better understand family physicians' beliefs, level of knowledge and sense of accountability regarding their support of informal (ie, unpaid) caregivers of older adults.

Seniors with dementia can be supported to ‘age in place’. However, this requires assistance from family and friends, who are often seniors themselves and may have health issues of their own. Although family physicians are well positioned to assist older adult caregivers, there is a paucity of data regarding this role.

After a literature review, we created a questionnaire to examine these issues. It was reviewed by experts and, after revision, was appraised by health planners/decision makers and pre-tested with family physicians. A final questionnaire was created using this feedback.

The next important step would be to administer the questionnaire to Canadian family physicians using appropriate survey methodology.

Osteoporosis is a highly prevalent and costly disease associated with aging. Previous studies have indicated low intervention rates in primary care; however, there is little research investigating the prescribing patterns of osteoporosis medications by primary-care physicians.

We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study to examine trends in osteoporosis medication utilization in primary care between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2009 in Ontario, Canada. All Ontario residents aged 65 years or older and eligible for public health coverage were included in the analysis (∼1.46 million residents in 2000, ∼1.75 million residents in 2009).

Analysis of 10-year data indicates a trend toward higher utilization of osteoporosis medications among elderly primary-care patients. In 2000, 100 038 unique patients were prescribed an osteoporosis medication by a family physician; by 2009, this number increased to 301 679. Age-group analyses suggest an inverted U-shaped pattern, whereby utilization rates increase with advancing age and then decline for the oldest age groups. Utilization rates were the lowest for the 100+ age group.

This study indicates increased utilization of osteoporosis-related medications among elderly primary-care patients over a recent 10-year time period. It is unclear whether the observed increase in utilization is due to higher rates of osteoporosis. Further research is needed to determine the appropriateness of this higher utilization.

This longitudinal study was designed to address four research questions and the hypothesis; that adults living in a rural community receiving primary health care and emergency services from a team that included an on-site nurse practitioner (NP) and paramedics and an off-site family physician would, over time, demonstrate evidence of improved psychosocial adjustment and less expenditure of health care resources.

In Canada, there is a growing awareness and commitment to addressing the challenges of providing primary health care services in rural areas. A literature review supported the role of NPs in primary health care and a potential role for paramedics. No studies were found that evaluated the combination of NPs, paramedics and physicians as providers of primary health care.

Structured questionnaires, individual and group interviews with patients, health and social service care providers and administrators and community members were used to describe and evaluate the impact of the model of care over the three years of the study.

The innovative model of care resulted in decreased cost, increased access, a high level of acceptance and satisfaction and effective collaboration among care providers. Organizational structures to support the innovative model of primary health care were identified.

It has been suggested that continuity of care is hampered because of the lack of communication between emergency departments (EDs) and primary care providers. A web-based, standardized communication system (SCS) that enables family physicians (FPs) to visualize information regarding their patients' ED visits was developed. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of this SCS on continuity of care.

We conducted an open, 4-period crossover, cluster-randomized controlled trial of 23 FP practices. During the intervention phase, FPs received detailed reports via SCS, while in the control phase they received mailed copies of the ED notes. Continuity of care was evaluated with a web questionnaire completed by FPs 21 days after the ED visit. The primary measures of continuity of care were knowledge of ED visit (quality and quantity), patient management and follow-up rate.

We analyzed a total of 2022 ED visits (1048 intervention and 974 control). The intervention group received information regarding the ED visit more often (odds ratio [OR] 3.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.6–3.79), found the information more useful (OR 5.1, 95% CI 3.49–7.46), possessed a better knowledge of the ED visit (OR 6.28, 95% CI 5.12–7.71), felt they could better manage patients (OR 2.46, 95% CI 2.02–2.99) and initiated actions more often following receipt of information (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.36–1.93). However, there was no significant difference in the follow-up rate at FPs offices (OR 1.25, 95% CI 0.97–1.61).

The use of SCS between an ED and FPs led to significant improvements in continuity of care by increasing the usefulness of transferred information and by improving FPs' perceived patient knowledge and patient management.