Roya Sadeghi - Associate Professor, Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Sara Mortaz Hejri - Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Elham Shakibazadeh - Associate Professor, Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abbas Rahimi Foroushani - Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Hashem Heshmati - PhD Student, Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Introduction: Despite the importance of health education, studies revealed that health education in Iran’s health system is not desirable, so the present study was done to investigate the barriers of health education in Iran’s health system. Method: This qualitative study was done in ۲۰۱۹. Twenty health experts and physician and ۲۶ community-based health workers (CHWs) were selected through purposive sampling method. Data were collected using semi-structured interview and group discussion. The data were analyzed using Lundman and Graneheim content analysis approach. Results: After data analysis, five themes including personal barriers (low capability of CHWs, low personal motivation, and wrong belifes of educator), interpersonal (the weakness of other health care providers in educating CHWs, inaccurate communication, poor commitment, and Customer-related problems), organizational (the weakness in empowerment of health care providers, high workload of CHWs, problems related to educational resources, and inappropriate evaluation and monitoring), social (low credibility of CHWs among Community Members (CMs), economical issues of CMs, and challenges related to using internet and virtual social networks), and contextual barriers (those related to universities, radio and television, and the gap between practical and theoretical education) were extracted. Conclusion: As barriers are multidimensional, so it is recommended to develop a comprehensive plan with cooperation of managers, experts, and health providers for solving the barriers.

Health Education, Barriers, Health system