Policy Making Challenges in the scope of Oral Health in Developing Countries A Qualitative Study of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Abstract Background As the strategies proposed for oral health improvement in developed countries do not adapt for the setting of the developing ones, this study is to identify the challenges of oral health policy making in developing countries.Methods It was a qualitative study conducted in 2019 in Iran as a middle-eastern developing country. The study population included all the experts who have enough experience in the scope and have the eagerness to participate. Snowball sampling was used to include the participants and after 12 semi-structured interviews saturation was achieved. Guba and Lincoln criteria containing acceptability, validity, reliability, and transferability were used to assure the study reliability and finally five-stage framework analysis method was used to analyze the data.Results The analysis of the results of the interviews resulted in the identification of 7 main themes and 20 sub-themes as the main challenges of achieving oral health in a developing country. The main themes identified were: policy making, implementing, educational, stewardship, prevention, insurance, and resource allocating. Conclusion: According to the present results, it seems that national coverage of oral health and the integration of these services in prevention ones and serious attention to the private sector can be considered as the most important strategies for achieving improved oral health.