Artikel
The impact of COVID-19 on health service utilization in the management of non-communicable diseases in Ghana
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Autoren
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Elliot Koranteng Tannor
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC)
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Wilm Quentin
- Department of Health Care Management, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC)
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Reinhard Busse
- Department of Health Care Management, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC)
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Daniel Opoku
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC)
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John Humphrey Amuasi
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC); Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research Group, Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kumasi, Ghana; Global One Health Research Group, Department of Implementation Research, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Division for Tropical Medicine, Department of Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| Veröffentlicht: | 28. November 2023 |
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Gliederung
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Introduction: COVID-19 has had devastating consequences on health systems globally and in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It led to a decrease in the provision of essential healthcare services and health service utilization (HSU) including the management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs are responsible for about 71% of all deaths globally and account for 85% of deaths between 30–69 years in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The changes in HSU in Ghana as a result of the pandemic are unknown. This study therefore sets out to describe the changes in HSU during the pandemic and also determine the predictors and impact of COVID-19 on patients with selected NCDs.
Research question: What are the changes, predictors and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HSU in the management of NCDs in Ghana?
Methods: Multiple study designs will be employed to achieve the study objectives. First, a retrospective analysis of secondary data from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) District Health Information Management System (DHIMS-2), Lightwave Health Information System (LHIMS) database and hospital-based data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic will be performed. Second, a mixed method study will be conducted in selected health facilities in the Ashanti region, representing an epicentre of the pandemic in Ghana, and Northern region, representing a non-epicentre. This will involve (a) cross-sectional quantitative health facility data analyses, focusing on patients with NCDs and (b) qualitative in-depth interviews of NCD patients, healthcare providers and health service managers. The study will be conducted from November 2023 to June 2024. Ethical approval will be sought from the various Institutional Review Boards in the Northern and the Ashanti region.
Expected results: We expect to determine
- 1.
- the changes in outpatient and in-patient HSU before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in all patients compared with NCD patients in Ghana; and
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- determine the factors accounting for the changes in HSU and the impact of COVID-19 among patients with NCDs in an epicenter and non-epicenter in Ghana.
Discussion: We expect to discuss the changes, predictors and impact of HSU in an epicenter as compared to a non-epicentre in Ghana, and comparing our findings to others in SSA.
