Exploring perceptions of policymakers about main strategies to enhance fertility rate: A qualitative study in Iran

Qualitative document analysis on Iranian contents and trends of population policies: Lessons learned and avenues for future

Population-related policies are among macro-strategic policies considered by all governments in the world. To achieve the desired population structure, it is first necessary to identify the general policy approach over time. This article aims to identify the main requirements of population policies during the last 70 years in Iran. This is a qualitative content analysis study conducted via the analysis of all relevant national policy documents from 1951 to 2022. To retrieve the relevant documents, we searched the official website of eight policymaking bodies in Iran. After identifying the documents, their eligibility was evaluated using Scott's method, and as a result, 40 documents were selected for analysis. Finally, we used a qualitative content analysis to synthesize the data using MAXQDA version 10. The findings showed that the political requirements for population reduction can be classified into four main themes of "Religious, scientific, and legal infrastructure", "Changes in the rules", "Institution building, programming and division of tasks", and "Information and service provision", with 11 sub-themes. Furthermore, the political requirements for an increasing population can be divided into six main themes of "Education & acculturation", "Legal dos, and don'ts", "Financial and non-financial support for families", "Structural and information infrastructure", "Health services", and "Stewardship", with 30 sub-themes. In this study, by an all-round look, and the analysis of policies of the last 70 years of Iran, it was determined how the population policies originate from the political-cultural background of society, and provide the ground for the changes in the cultural-social, political, and economic structures and as a result demographic change. In other words, the main requirements to formulate the population increase and decrease policies in Iran as a country with golden experiences to implement the population policies were shown; which can be helpful as a guide to formulate the population policies in Iran and provide a model for successful policy making in the countries with a similar background to Iran.

Contribution of Iranian researchers in Alzheimer's disease research: A 10 years scientometric analysis

Background

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and is a rising issue for global health. Iran is struggling with a growing number of the elderly population and also a decrease in fertility rate. The goal of this study was to review and evaluate Alzheimer's disease publications by Iranian researchers.

Methods

We searched for Alzheimer and all its related keywords in the Web of Science to find related documents published by Iranian researchers from 2010 until 2019. Bibliometric parameters at the level of documents, authors, and organizations were assessed. The co-authorship matrix was computed using Bibexcel, and visualizations were performed by VOSviewer.

Results

Totally, 1042 documents from 4949 researchers (8.6 authors per document) were retrieved from Web of Science. Original articles (77.06%) and reviews (16.21%) were the most common document types for Iranian publications and also one article was retracted. As results, the average citation per document was 20.68. Iranian researchers mainly collaborated with researchers from the United States, Italy, Australia, and Canada, respectively. The co-occurrence networks for keywords represented five publication clusters in the collection. The largest cluster was related to studies on oxidative stress in Alzheimer's Disease, followed by in-vivo studies in the field of brain neurons destruction.

Conclusion

We found that Iranian researchers made significant impacts in the field of Alzheimer's disease and covered a wide range of related areas over the last 10 years.

Psychological and Sociodemographic Predictors of Fertility Intention among Childbearing-Aged Women in Hamadan, West of Iran: An Application of the BASNEF Model

Background

Fertility and childbearing are the most important determinants of population variation around the world. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the psychological and sociodemographic factors predicting fertility intention among women referred to comprehensive health centers in Hamadan based on the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and enabling factors (BASNEF) model.

Methods

This descriptive analytical study was performed in comprehensive health centers in Hamadan in 2016. Through a multi-stage sampling method, 484 women were enrolled in the study. The data collection tool was a selfreport questionnaire based on the constructs of the BASNEF model. Data were analyzed using linear regression, independent t-test, and a one-way analysis of variance using IBM SPSS software ver. 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).

Results

The mean±standard deviation of the women’s age was 31.85±6.13 years. The variables of motivation to comply (β=0.228), enabling factors (β=0.162), subjective norms (β=0.134), and attitude (β=0.122) were the predictors of fertility intention in women. This model was able to explain 16.8% of variance in behavioral intention. Also, lower age, higher education, shorter duration of marriage, and having a daughter resulted in a greater fertility intention.

Conclusion

It seems that designing and implementing educational programs to improve attitudes, promoting positive subjective norms, and enhancing enabling factors can play a major role in increasing fertility intention in women.