Review

The change in attitude and knowledge of health care personnel and general population following trainings provided during integration of mental health in Primary Health Care in Iran: a systematic review

Naghmeh Mansouri¹ , Banafsheh Gharaee² , Seyed Vahid Shariat³ , Jafar Bolhari³ , Reza Yousefi Nooraie⁴ , Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar⁵ and Narges Alirezaie⁶

¹  Mental Health Research Center and Tehran Psychiatric Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

²  Department of Psychology, Tehran Psychiatric Institute and Mental Health Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

³  Department of Psychiatry, Tehran Psychiatric Institute and Mental Health Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁴  Center for Academic and Health Policies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁵  Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS (IRCHA), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁶  World Health Organization Collaborating Center, Tehran Psychiatric Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

author email corresponding author email

International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2009, 3:15doi:10.1186/1752-4458-3-15

Published:	25 June 2009

Abstract

Background

Mental health has been integrated in the primary health care program in small cities and villages of Iran in a national level since the late 1980s. We performed a systematic review of literature to investigate the effect of education on change in attitude and knowledge of mental health care providers and the population covered in the program during the recent two decades in Iran.

Methods

Electronic bibliographic databases including Pubmed, PsycINFO and EMBase as well as the main Iranian databases (Scientific Information Database, IranMedex, IranPsych, and IranDoc) were searched. Additionally, hand searching, personal contacts and tracking of reference lists were performed. All of the studies which compared the attitude and knowledge of the related population before and after an educational intervention were recruited.

Results

Six articles met the inclusion criteria and entered the review. All of these studies showed an improvement in the attitude and knowledge of the studied population. Although the studies were different in many respects, a meta-analysis on the two more similar studies showed a significant effect of training on long term improvement of the knowledge and attitude of the population.

Conclusion

A short term training improved knowledge and attitude of the population and health personnel immediately after the intervention. There is also evidence for a long term change in the attitude and knowledge of general population after short term training.