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

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.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.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.Integrating mental health services into Primary Health Care (PHC) is one of the most fundamental strategies expected to provide several advantages for the service consumers [1]. These advantages include reduced stigma, improved access to care, reduced chronicity and improved social integration. In addition, such integration provides services more compatible with better protection of human rights. Better overall health outcome of the consumers and improvement of human resources capacity are among other benefits of such integrated systems [2].Iran with a population of 70495782 is located in the Middle East and has a literacy rate of 84% [3]. Seventy one percent of the population is living in the cities and 29% form the rural population. The PHC system has greatly expanded in Iran since 1984 [4]. The core component of the PHC lies in its referral-based district units, with the most peripheral level (Health House) run by