APPLICATION OF STRATEGIC ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM: A SURVEY ON IRANIAN DIABETICS’ DEMANDS FOR NUTRITION COUNSELING

In recent decades, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, has led to increase entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of nutrition counseling services in the world, tremendously. Considering the high prevalence of diabetes in Iran, it seems necessary to identify entrepreneurial opportunities in this field. In the same direction, this survey has been conducted by focusing on the Strategic Analysis of External Environment to analyze the trend of diabetic patients’ demands for nutritional counseling in Tehran, capital of Iran. To implement the survey, a questionnaire based on Likert scale was sent by email to 80 active professionals in the field of nutrition counseling services in Tehran that 48 of those responded to the questionnaire. Ultimately, mean values of the responses were calculated, using SPSS11.5. Mean values obtained from participants’ responses in the field of the demand for nutrition counseling among diabetic patients who have incomes above the 50th percentile and below it, were 4.02 and 3.56, respectively; this values for diabetic adults with & without college education were 3.98 and 3.71, respectively; also, similar values of age categories: <35y, 35-49y, 50-64y and >65y, were 3.79, 3.46, 4.29 and 3.98. These findings not only indicated that diabetic patients who have incomes above the 50th percentile, diabetic adults with college education and diabetic patients aged50 to 64years, can be considered as suitable target groups for entrepreneurial activities in the field of nutrition counseling in Tehran but showed that the strategic analysis can be a suitable way to achieve findings for both public and private sectors of the health care system.