Abstract
Background: Health systems have a set of limited resources for meeting the needs of communities. Health priority setting based
on criteria and values is inevitable in such situation. This paper aims to identify the social values that are considered in Iranian
health system.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in 3 steps including collecting national documents and literature review, interviewing
key informants, and a 2 round Delphi. Interviews and documents were analyzed through thematic framework analysis. Statistical
guidance was applied for determining consensus cut-off in Delphi technique.
Results: Five social values including freedom of choice, equity, solidarity, severity of disease(s), and burden of disease(s) were
considered more important than other values in the health priority setting decisions. Moreover, 2 non-value based factors including
conflict of interest and lobbying had a high effect on decision making.
Conclusion: Most health policy makers decide based on Egalitarian school, but restriction of resources in the country decreases
the outcome. Moreover, personal judgments and preferences sometimes affect their decisions. It seems that developing a valuebased
framework and making it as a national guidance could have affirmative effect on health administers decisions.