Assessing Development Levels of Kerman City in Terms of Health Indicators Using the Numerical Taxonomy

Introduction: Understanding the development situation is regarded necessary in order to plan to achieve the optimal development. This understanding involves separating study regions from planning areas, evaluating the separate regions via development indicators, and ranking each area in terms of having development blessings. Therefore, this study aimed to stratify Kerman province districts in terms of health indicators using taxonomy models. Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on the stratification of 16 Kerman Province districts based on 10 selected health indicators using taxonomy models. The study data were collected by the researcher from statistical center of Iran as well as Kerman University of Medical Sciences. In order to analyze the data, SPSS.19 and Excel 2010 softwares were utilized. Results: The taxonomy model results revealed Baft district (0.46) and Rigan district (0.96) as the most and least developed districts, respectively. Moreover, 31.25% of the studied cities were moderately developed, 37.5% were less developed and others were the least developed ones. Conclusions: A relatively large difference can be observed between cities in regard with their health sectors. Most of the cities did not demonstrate satisfactory status concerning healthcare indices. Therefore, formulating plans on how to allocate resources for the health sector in order to improve the health status of the cities demand to be essential for the policy makers.