CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING AN ORAL HEALTH POLICY IN PALESTINE

Abstract

Background: Oral health in Palestine remains poorly integrated into the national healthcare system, and oral health policy faces structural, administrative, financial, and political challenges. Objectives: To explore structural and administrative barriers to oral health policy development and implementation in Palestine, examine financial, resource, and political challenges to service provision, assess the accessibility and effectiveness of existing policies for vulnerable populations, and identify strategies to strengthen policy integration. Methodology: A quantitative, descriptive-analytic, cross-sectional design was used. Based on an estimated population of 5,600 professionals, Cochran’s formula gave a minimum sample of 232; 231 valid questionnaires were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, one-sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. Five exploratory interviews informed questionnaire development. Results: Structural and administrative barriers (M = 4.033), financial constraints and resource availability (M = 4.095), and service accessibility and policy effectiveness (M = 3.866) were all rated significantly above the neutral value of 3.00 (p < 0.001). Together they explained 67.4% of the variance in oral health policy development and implementation (R² = 0.674, p < 0.001), with financial constraints the strongest predictor (β = 0.339), followed by structural and administrative barriers (β = 0.312) and service accessibility (β = 0.261). Stakeholder cooperation was the most strongly endorsed strategy (M = 4.234). Conclusions: Governance, financing, and political conditions are interrelated challenges to oral health policy in Palestine. Dedicated financing, stronger coordination and data systems, and integration of oral health into primary healthcare are needed.