Sustainable Development Goals Realisation: A National Indicator Framework for Iranian Health Monitoring

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global inclusive indicator framework for improving the population’s health, adapted to each country’s socio-political context. This study aimed to propose a national indicator framework for Iran as a reference list toward SDGs realisation in health and health-related. SDGs and three additional complementary frameworks (WHO Core Health Indicators, Action on Social Determinants of Health Core Indicators and Iranian National Health Equity Indicators) were selected to provide the theoretical base for the National Indicator Framework and to identify, compare, and select the potential indicators based on the country’s contextual needs and capacities. WHO’s “result chain pattern for heath core indicators classification” was used as a conceptual basis to facilitate identifying indicators and to link those to underlying country data systems and data gathering methods. After identifying the initial list of 181 indicators, senior informants from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education-related departments and other health-related organisations were consulted to reduce and verify the initial list. A National Indicator Framework for health monitoring in Iran has been developed to contain 101 indicators (including 12 input/ process indicators, 13 output indicators, 44 outcome indicators, and 32 impact indicators) organised within four domains of “health status”, “risk factors”, “service coverage” and “the health system”. This framework addresses the health core indicators gap identified in paragraph No. 3 under article NO.7 of the Law on Permanent Provisions of Country Development Programs. It will be used to notify policies and programs to improve the health system and population health status at the national level.