Analysis of Indicators of Health Status in Provinces and Ten Regions of Iran

Health sector is one of the most important management sectors that improvement of its indicators, leads to increased wellbeing of people, costs reduction and ultimately sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to investigate health status indicators of Iran provinces and to rank the provinces and ten regions of Iran accordingly.
The method of study was descriptive and analytical. The population of the study included 31 provinces and ten regions of Iran. In this study, 20 health indicators were selected. Entropy method was used for weighting. In order to rank provinces and regions of the country, TOPSIS was used and finally for mapping Arc GIS 10.1 was used.
According to the results, Gilan, Semnan and Yazd provinces gained respectively the first ranks and Sistan and Baluchestan, Kermanshah and Khuzestan provinces were respectively ranked as the last ones. In the ranking of regions, in terms of development, north coastal regions and central areas gained respectively the first and the second ranks and the southeastern region was in the last place.
Most of the provinces were grouped as deprived and relatively deprived and in terms of health status indicators were in a state of instability. Political and administrative centralization are the main factors causing this situation. In order to improve the distribution of health sectors and to reduce losses resulting from deprivation, the large south-east region and the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan should be considered in investment and planning priorities.