Medical Inequalities around the world

For today's blog entry, I will be focusing on inequalities that exist in health care and medicine throughout the world. I will be specifically focusing on Iran for this entry, as I've found some interesting information about a relatively small country of the world. However, the problems that exist in Iran are different than those discussed for America in many respects. In the United States, we have such a mix that it is easy to find and discuss the differences that exist between races, genders, and classes and each of those areas varies greatly in different areas of the country. In other nations, from what I have found, most of the disparities exist due to gender and socioeconomic class, and not really due to race or ethnicity.

In order to discuss health disparities and areas that are lacking in proper health care or medical treatments, I'm going to focus on Iran. Iran is a relatively small nation that many people think of as being war-torn and full of conflict, but many never consider what it's like for the natives of Iran to live and work there. According to an article published by the Population Reference Bureau entitled, "Iran Faces Pressure to Provide Jobs, Address Health Disparities," an area of major health disparity in the nation is based on regional differences. Specifically, the article discusses the differences that exist between Tehran, the nation's capital, and Sistan-Baluchestan, a rural town located in Iran. In the comparison drawn, the article points out that rate of death at birth is much higher in Sistan-Baluchestan, and the life expectancy is much lower, as drastic as 9 years. As a reason for this difference, the article references the fact that health care professionals are paid a modest amount of money and there is no incentive for them to move into difficult and rural areas to do their work. I think it's important to point out the clear comparison that can be drawn with America on this topic. The United States has a similar problem with filling health care positions in the most rural communities and many of these differences exist here as well, although not as drastic. However, the United States offers incentives to doctors willing to work in rural areas such as higher pay or help with student loans or tuition in medical school.

Also in Iran, the same article listed above discusses the disparities that exist in reproductive health throughout Iran. Compared to 82% of women who use contraception and family planning in Tehran, only 42% are shown to use it in Sistan-Baluchestan. This disparity could be due to lack of education or lack of resources; the article doesn't make a claim for the cause of the situation. However, it is important to point out that what is seen as a disparity within a nation, can be shown to be related to an entire region. In the Middle East, contraception use and family planning are much lower than even the poorest and most rural regions of Iran. I found this extremely interesting because it makes me wonder the reasons why Iran seems to be much more educated and focused on the problems that come from failing to use contraception or family planning techniques.

In my research about Iran, I came across a study done by Hamid Sepehrdoust, a faculty member at Bu-Ali-Sina University in Hamedan, Iran, called "Eliminating Health Disparities Call to Action in Iran." In the study, he discusses health disparities that exist within Iran as well as in other countries, namely India, and he references many of the same ideas that I discussed above. However, what I found particularly interesting in this study is that in the "Main Findings" section, he offered solutions that Iran should use to decrease or eliminate the health care disparities that exist throughout the country. His first suggestion is to "provide national access to an adequate level of health care facilities for the population." This suggestion in particular made me see the connection between the United States and Iran. Amid all of the discussion and turmoil over the current Health Care Reform bill, I realize that the main point of the bill is to provide equal and adequate health care and insurance to all citizens of the nation. I think it's important to realize the parallels that can be drawn between the U.S. and Iran, as well as the other countries I've discussed throughout the blog. The second suggestion made in the study was to "bring just and equal distribution of financial burden on people with respect to health care expenditures without external effects on their socioeconomic status in life." The third is to "equip providers with permanent touch with knowledge of accountability and cost effective usages of the health care budget." The last and final suggestion made is to provide special attention to groups like women, children, disabled, and the elderly. All of these suggestions would seemingly help the inequalities that exist in Iran and could probably be applied to every country around the world to help alleviate problems that exist in health care and differences that arise due to region, race, class, ethnicity, or gender.