Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 48 12 2019 12 02 2240 2248 Azad SHOKRI Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Ali AKBARI-SARI Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mahboubeh BAYAT Gerash University of Medical Sciences, Gerash, Iran   AND Center for Health Human Resources Research & Studies, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran  Mahmoud KHODADOST Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Abbas RAHIMI FOROUSHANI Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Elmira MIRBAHAEDDIN Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Fereshteh FARZIANPOUR Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2019 12 02 Background: Accurate estimation of active general practitioners (GPs) is a concern for health authorities to estimate requirements. This study aimed to accurately estimate GPs active supply in Iran using three sources capture-recapture (CRC) method. Methods: This cross-sectional study collected data during 2015-2016, targeting all GPs registered in three independent data sources; a national survey from all hospitals, database of human resource management office at health ministry and physicians' offices databank. Variables including medical council codes, GP names, surnames and national ID codes were used for data linkage among the three sources. Three sources CRC method was applied using log-linear models to estimate the total number of active GPs in STATA software. Results: Overall, 27,048 GPs were identified after removing the duplicate records. Based on CRC three sources data, the total number of GPs were 53,630 in 2015-2016. Distribution of GPs per 1,000 population among the provinces indicates that provinces of Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad, Mazandaran, Golestan and Yazd with ratios of 1.28, 1.28, 1.21 and 1.17 physicians rank the highest proportion of GPs and the provinces of Sistan & Baluchestan, Ilam, Zanjan, Alborz, North Khorasan with corresponding ratios of 0.24, 0.40, 0.40, 0.43 and 0.45 GPs ranked the lowest. Conclusion: CRC method is known to be the best and rapidest method to estimate active GP due to its compatibility for the current situation of databanks in Iran. Therefore, this method is a good application in human resource distribution and planning. https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/19076 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/19076/6606