Major articleHow do Iranian physicians report notifiable diseases? The first report from Iran
Section snippets
Study design and participants
In this cross-sectional study, between March and July 2006, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 400 GPs working in Shiraz and attending conferences sponsored by the Office of Interuniversity Relations, International & Congress Affairs, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire comprised 6 sections:
- 1.
Sociodemographic (age, sex, number of years since graduation), workplace (working in a governmental or in a private clinic/hospital)
- 2.
Knowledge of reporting methods
Results
A total of 301 participants returned the questionnaire, for a response rate of 75%. The respondents’ mean age was 32.09 ± 4.63 years (range, 26 to 67 years). The respondents were predominately male (69.1%); 25% of the respondents worked in a government hospital/clinic, 52.3% in a private setting, and 22.7% in both a government setting and a private setting (Table 1).
Discussion
The historical paradigm of public health surveillance systems includes both a case finding and diagnosis component and a disease reporting component.6 In Iran, the reporting of notifiable diseases is mandated by the Health Ministry, and a list of notifiable diseases and legal requirements for reporting (ie, commonly understood case reporting criteria [ie, case definitions], methods of reporting [eg, telephone, mail]), the data to include in the report, and the required time interval between
Conclusion and recommendations
The findings of this study suggest the benefit of improving physicians’ knowledge of and compliance with notifiable disease reporting through such simple methods as posting the list of notifiable dieases and reporting requirements in the workplace. Motivating physicians, removing barriers to notifiable disease reporting, and facilitating the reporting process should reduce the underreporting of notifiable diseases. Focusing educational programs in this area, and having other medical staff
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Conflict of interest: None to report.