The relationship between important reproductive health indices and human development index in Iran

Abstract

Background: Reviewing the reproductive health indicators (RHIs) provides the possibility of periodic health system performance evaluation to achieve balanced development. This study aimed to determine the trend of ten reproductive health indicators changes during 2002-2011, and examining their relationship with the Human Development Index (HDI). Methods: In this ecological study the trend of ten reproductive health indicators from five selected provinces of Iran were mapped. Then the relationship of these ten indicators with HDI was investigated using non parametric Spearman's rank correlation coefficient in SPSS v. 20. Results: There was a statistically significant direct and strong correlation between the percentage of childbirth by a trained person and HDI (r= 0.9, p=0.037). Conclusion: In our study, it can be expected that the provinces with similar reproductive health indicators, likely have similar HDI.