Social Values in Health Prioritizing: the analysis of national documents of Iran

Health system, as a part of the wider social system, should consider social values in decisions for health prioritizing. This study was aimed at identifying social values considered in the health-related national documents.
This qualitative study was conducted based on the Clark-Weale framework to identify the social values in health related national documents. Identification of health-related basic documents (11 documents) was performed purposefully. Documents included Iran's Constitution Law, the 5-year development plan, national health insurance law, urban family physician program, health sector development map, Health Ministry foundation law and Health Ministry structure and organizational law. Each value was analyzed based on qualitative content analysis.
Different approaches toward considering social values were observed. While some documents had explicitly considered social values, some others had implicitly considered them. The health Road Map was the most comprehensive document in terms of considering social values. Equity was the most repeated value in documents and clinical effectiveness was not mentioned in any of the documents.
Although, the importance of social values has been increased in national documents during the recent years, it dose not have the same trend in different documents and each of them have emphasized on different social values. It seems that using national documents, as a practical guide, can be effective in achieving health system goals.