Involvement Areas of Urban and Rural Islamic Councils Members in Province Health System: a Grounded Theory Study

Provision and promotion of community health need active public involvement. Islamic councils as representatives of a community can play an important role in this area. The involvement areas should initially be recognized in order to achieve this goal. This research was planed and implemented to identify Islamic council's involvement areas in East Azerbaijan Health system. This qualitative study was conducted using grounded theory approach. Fields of Islamic councils contributions were investigated through Semi-structured in-depth interviews with members of urban and rural Islamic councils and PHC workers. Collected data were manually analyzed using Straus and Corbin methods. We interviewed 29 individuals. The results of interviews analysis were categorized in 6 main categories including: city and rural environmental health, different aspects of PHC administration, health education and health promotion, facilitating community and organizational involvements, facilitating communication and other technical aspects such as maternal health. From the viewpoint of the participants, there is wide variety of fields for members of Islamic councils to involve in health system particularly in environmental health area. Health system administrators and policy makers should implement right strategies for facilitating Islamic councils’ involvement and using their high potential to achieve health system goals.