Systematic Analysis of Research Articles on Health Policy in the Developing Countries: Implications for Researchers

In spite of development of public policy analysis in health domain in developed countries and its widespread use, its application is still in its infancy in the developing countries. In this article, based on the narrative review of articles published from 1994 to 2017 on health policy analysis in these countries, their thematic scope, methodological and analytical approach are analytically reviewed. This article provides a platform to assist researchers to develop this field by examining the methodological and analytical pitfalls, as well this study aimed at encouraging the health policy researchers to focus more on this research area. All relevant articles were identified according to five predefined search priorities. 15 articles fall into the review inclusion criteria and then they were studied and analyzed. The selected articles were small in number but varied in the scope. The majority of studies provided description of some episode of policy change. They explained a conceptual ordering among lots of influencing factors or tested a set of predefined hypothesis, regardless of exploring the reason behind health policy changes (policy process). In addition, most of the studies adopted a single case study design and had significant analytical weaknesses. As well, from the points of analytical reviewing, most of them were descriptive- analytical instead of being exploratory in nature. However, understanding factors influencing health policy process and the results of policy change deeply can strengthen future policy development and implementation. This study showed that the efforts made in developing countries to explain changes in health policy process have been limited. So, future qualitative studies with a rigorous study designs are needed to develop current theories or coming up with new ones with the aim of providing a better understanding of health policy process in developing countries. Health policy researchers are encouraged to study the health policy process as a whole, using inductive research approaches, to develop new theories rich in exploratory power or to localize current theories in consistence with national contextual requirement.