enhancing human development assessment through multi-criteria decision making: a case study of health status and services in west azerbaijan, iran

This study investigates the human development index (hdi), a composite measure developed by the united nations development program to evaluate human development through life expectancy, education, and income. this research aims to assess the health status and services across 17 cities in west azerbaijan province, iran, using multi-criteria decision-making (mcdm) techniques: topsis, moora, aras, and copras. eight health indicators, including primary medical care centers, laboratories, active beds, pharmacies, general practitioners, specialists, subspecialists, and dentists, were used for the ranking. the shannon entropy method was applied to determine the weights of these indicators. the results reveal significant disparities in health service distribution, with urmia, khoy, and miandoab having the best health services, while poldasht, chaldoran, and chaypareh are the most deprived. the study employs the spearman rank correlation coefficient to validate the rankings and utilizes the utility interval aggregation method to enhance reliability. managerial insights suggest that policymakers should prioritize equitable distribution of health services to mitigate disparities and promote balanced regional development. effective resource allocation and targeted interventions in underserved areas are crucial for improving overall human development.