The Family Medicine and Its Role on Social, Cultural and Economic Factors in Rural Area

The main activities of the family physician are health based and its goal is maintaining and improving the health of the community. Overall health status is determined based on genetic، economic، social، cultural and environmental factors. In contrast، the development of society and its associated components، including cultural، economic and educational can impact on health status. Therefore، it is expected the outputs and results of health programs to have an important role in mentioned factors. This study has been conducted to understand the role of the family physician program on economic، culture and social situation on defined population in rural area from executive manager''s، decision makers'' and people point of view. this qualitative study with using focus group discussion (FGD) and individual interview technique was conducted in three universities of medical sciences; and analyzed by content analysis approach. Totally، 12 FGDs with population (60 persons)، 6 FGDs with family physicians (34 persons)، 8 individual interviews with key informant of health sector and 14 individual interviews of other sectors have been done. seven categories have been extracted by analyzing data including the goals of family medicine program، role of the program on economic and welfare situation of the community، role of the program on culture and life style (changing of the beliefs and culture، health nutrition، education، social determinants of health and the program)، social capital. (justice an and community participation). Based on opinion of participants family medicine has a role on some economic and social factors but there hasn''t any relation between the program and change of the community culture and life style. They believed that program mainly decreased the therapeutic expenses and provided feasible accessibility to health care. This has contributed to people''s quality of life and welfare situation