Are people in Tehran prepared for the family physician program?

BACKGROUND: Upon successful experiences of family physician program in the rural regions, Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) made a decision to expand this program to urban areas. For this reason a pilot program were designated and some cities have been selected to determine dos and don’ts of performing family physician program in the cities. Various studies were published during this period demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages of family physicians’ care in these cities. After this process in 2012 and 2013 MOHME announced implementation of family physician program in Tehran. Our study investigated public attitudes, knowledge and practice about the newly introduced program. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed in Tehran during November to December 2012. A telephone survey was carried out using the Random Digit Dialing (RDD) method and data was gathered by a researcher designed questionnaire. A total of 386 residents aged 18 years and over participated in the study. To compare the differences between various groups’ knowledge scores data were analyzed performing Chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA, and logistic regression by SPSS software version 17, to find factors that affected individuals’ agreement with the program. RESULTS: Among all samples 214(57.4%) knew about the program and almost 120(85.1%) of these aware people were planning to participate in the program. Television and Radio were the major information resources. After adjusting for Educational status, Access to Internet and Socio Economic Status(SES) those people who didn’t have any kind of health coverage systems(Health insurance) were most likely to accept the program and agree with that[OR= 2.38(1.05-5.38)]. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that despite low levels of information, most of aware people intend to enroll in the new program reveals that expanding informative programs would bring more participation and involvement among community.