TEHRAN – Iran will host an international congress on family health from March 5 to 6 with a focus on the significant role of mothers in the family's wellbeing.

In this regard, health programs to promote mothers’ health are planned to increase in the next Iranian calendar year, starting on March 21, ISNA quoted Hossein Farshidi, an official with the Health Ministry, as saying.

The international congress on family health will be held as a part of the Health Ministry’s efforts to highlight the role of women in promoting family health and also to share and use the experiences of other countries in promoting family health, the official added.

Experts from the World Health Organization and some of the health ministers of regional countries are expected to take part in the event, Farshidi noted.

Women and family health

The 28th Technical Meeting of the G5 Forum was held in Tehran from February 13 to 15 with the theme of “Women and Family Health”.

G5 member states including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan (as an observer member), and the World Health Organization attended the meeting.

The participants examined joint strategies to improve the health of women and mothers. Also, indicators, achievements, challenges, and threats to women's health in physical, mental, and spiritual categories, and the future approaches were discussed, the Health Ministry website reported.

Addressing the meeting, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said the main objective is improving regional countries' health. Mother's health is the pillar of a family’s health, which leads to the expansion of health in a country. So, mothers have a central role in the family.

“Making up half of the country's population, mothers can play an essential role in the nutritional and mental health of families by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Women’s physical, mental, cultural, emotional, and spiritual well-being improves health care. Healthy women make a healthy family and subsequently a healthy society.”

Einollahi added that the family physician program focusing on family health is being implemented in the country. He highlighted that the International Health Congress will be held in Iran on March 5.

Stating that in Iran, 99 health care services are provided to women free of charge, he went on to say that preserving the dignity of motherhood, the value of childbearing, timely marriage and childbearing, services, and full coverage of free insurance for mothers and infertility treatment are among these services.

For her part, Ensieh Khazali, the vice president for women and family affairs, noted that good measures have been taken to support women during their pregnancy and breastfeeding period, and their children, up to the age of five, are covered by insurance.

In addition to 99 free health care services, telephone counseling and several screenings for women including heart diseases, cancer, and depression are carried out in the country, she added.

Among other measures is the allocation of certain parks to women to maximize their vitality, physical mobility, and mental health, the official noted.

Referring to the significant reduction in the mortality of pregnant mothers as one of the successes of the country, Khazali stated the mortality of pregnant mothers has decreased from 245 per 100,000 before the Islamic Revolution to 23 per 100,000 live births.

Also, infant mortality has decreased from 110 per thousand live births before the Islamic Revolution to 8 per thousand live births, which is part of the country's achievements in improving public health, she concluded.

Family Physician Program

Family Physician Program was started in 2005, which targeted almost 25,000,000 citizens residing in rural areas, and was piloted in two provinces of Fars and Mazandaran.

Periodic examinations and monitoring of people's health status, easy and round-the-clock access to basic services and primary care, and frequent visits to doctors are the characteristics of a family physician.

Based on the Family Physician Program, a physician and a midwife offer services in rural areas, every 3,300 villagers have a physician and there is a midwife per 5,200 people in villages.

The implementation of the Family Physician Program in urban areas began in June 2012 in Fars and Mazandaran provinces. Reducing out-of-pocket payments has been an important effect and benefit of the urban family physician program.

The Family Physician Program has made treatment referrals more concentrated and improved the interactions between doctors and healthcare providers.

On September 8, Einollahi described the Family Physician Program as the most important priority of the ministry for the next two years.

"This program is a basic measure which, in case of being properly formed, will solve many problems of the health system,” Einollahi said, IRNA reported.

In September 2023, Mohsen Barouni, an official with the Health Ministry said “The program has been implemented in 182 cities of the country covering more than 20 million Iranians,” IRNA reported.

A total of 20,263,501 persons have been covered by the Family Physician Program, which constitutes 40 percent of the target population in cities.

Over 4300 healthcare workers have been recruited for the implementation of the program. So far, Family Physician Program has been implemented in three phases; in the first phase 59 cities were included in the program; in the second phase, it raised to 93 cities and now a total of 182 cities are covered by the program.

Barouni went on to say that the Family Physician Program has not yet been carried out in 66 cities of the country, they will join the program in the next stages.

MT/MG