Prioritizing solutions to incorporate Prosthetics and Orthotics services into Iranian health benefits package: Using an analytic hierarchy process

Saeed Shahabi, Shahina Pardhan, Ahmad Ahmadi Teymourlouy, Dimitrios Skempes, Shabnam Shahali, Parviz Mojgani, Maryam Jalali and Kamran Bagheri Lankarani

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Introduction: Health benefits package (HBP) is regarded as one of the main dimensions of health financing strategy. Even with increasing demands for prosthetics and orthotics (P&O) services to approximately 0.5% of the world’s population, only 15% of vulnerable groups have the chance to make use of such benefits. Inadequate coverage of P&O services in the HBP is accordingly one of the leading reasons for this situation in many countries, including Iran. Aims: The main objective of this study was to find and prioritize solutions in order to facilitate and promote P&O services in the Iranian HBP. Study design: A mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) research design was employed in this study. Methods: This study was conducted in two phases. First, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to retrieve potential solutions. Then an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) reflecting on seven criteria of acceptability, effectiveness, time, cost, feasibility, burden of disease, and fairness was performed to prioritize them. Results: In total, 26 individuals participated in semi-structured interviews and several policy solutions were proposed. Following the AHP, preventive interventions, infant-specific interventions, inpatient interventions, interventions until 6 years of age, and emergency interventions gained the highest priority to incorporate in the Iranian HBP. Conclusion: A number of policy solutions were explored and prioritized for P&O services in the Iranian HBP. Our findings provide a framework for decision- and policy-makers in Iran and other countries aiming to curb the financial burdens of P&O users, especially in vulnerable groups.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253001 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 53001&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0253001

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253001

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().