Assessment of care provision for hypertension at the emergency Department of an Urban Hospital in Mozambique

Managing hypertension in rural Gambia and Kenya: Protocol for a qualitative study exploring the experiences of patients, health care workers, and decision-makers

Background

Hypertension is the single leading risk factor for premature death in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Prevalence is high, but awareness, treatment, and control are low. Community-centred interventions show promise for effective hypertension management, but embedding such interventions sustainably requires a good understanding of the wider context within which they are being introduced. This study aims to conduct a systematic health system assessment exploring the micro (patients/carers), meso (health care workers and facilities), and macro (broader system) contexts in rural Gambia and Kenya.

Methods

This study will utilise various qualitative approaches. We will conduct (i) focus group discussions with people living with hypertensive to map a 'typical' patient journey through health systems, and (ii) in-depth interviews with patients and family carers, health care workers, decision-makers, and NCD partners to explore their experiences of managing hypertension and assess the capacity and readiness of the health systems to strengthen hypertension management. We will also review national guidelines and policy documents to map the organisation of services and guidance on hypertension management. We will use thematic analysis to analyse data, guided by the cumulative complexity model, and theories of organisational readiness and dissemination of innovations.

Expected findings

This study will describe the current context for the management of hypertension from the perspective of those involved in seeking (patients), delivering (health care workers) and overseeing (decision-makers) health services in rural Gambia and Kenya. It will juxtapose what should be happening according to health system guidance and what is happening in practice, drawing on the experiences of study participants. It will outline the various barriers to and facilitators of hypertension management, as perceived by patients, providers, and decision-makers, and the conditions that would need to be in place for effective and sustainable implementation of a community-centred intervention to improve the management of hypertension in rural settings.

Understanding Gaps in the Hypertension and Diabetes Care Cascade: Systematic Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Hypertension and diabetes are global health challenges requiring effective management to mitigate their considerable burden. The successful management of hypertension and diabetes requires the completion of a sequence of stages, which are collectively termed the care cascade.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aimed to describe the characteristics of studies on the hypertension and diabetes care cascade and identify potential interventions as well as factors that impact each stage of the care cascade.

METHODS

The method of this scoping review has been guided by the framework by Arksey and O'Malley. We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science using terms pertinent to hypertension, diabetes, and specific stages of the care cascade. Articles published after 2011 were considered, and we included all studies that described the completion of at least one stage of the care cascade of hypertension and diabetes. Study selection was independently performed by 2 paired authors. Descriptive statistics were used to elucidate key patterns and trends. Inductive content analysis was performed to generate themes regarding the barriers and facilitators for improving the care cascade in hypertension and diabetes management.

RESULTS

A total of 128 studies were included, with 42.2% (54/128) conducted in high-income countries. Of them, 47 (36.7%) focused on hypertension care, 63 (49.2%) focused on diabetes care, and only 18 (14.1%) reported on the care of both diseases. The majority (96/128, 75.0%) were observational in design. Cascade stages documented in the literature were awareness, screening, diagnosis, linkage to care, treatment, adherence to medication, and control. Most studies focused on the stages of treatment and control, while a relative paucity of studies examined the stages before treatment initiation (76/128, 59.4% vs 52/128, 40.6%). There was a wide spectrum of interventions aimed at enhancing the hypertension and diabetes care cascade. The analysis unveiled a multitude of individual-level and system-level factors influencing the successful completion of cascade sequences in both high-income and low- and middle-income settings.

CONCLUSIONS

This review offers a comprehensive understanding of hypertension and diabetes management, emphasizing the pivotal factors that impact each stage of care. Future research should focus on upstream cascade stages and context-specific interventions to optimize patient retention and care outcomes.

Implementing essential diagnostics-learning from essential medicines: A scoping review

The World Health Organization (WHO) model list of Essential In vitro Diagnostic (EDL) introduced in 2018 complements the established Essential Medicines List (EML) and improves its impact on advancing universal health coverage and better health outcomes. We conducted a scoping review of the literature on implementing the WHO essential lists in Africa to inform the implementation of the recently introduced EDL. We searched eight electronic databases for studies reporting on implementing the WHO EDL and EML in Africa. Two authors independently conducted study selection and data extraction, with disagreements resolved through discussion. We used the Supporting the Use of Research Evidence (SURE) framework to extract themes and synthesised findings using thematic content analysis. We used the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) version 2018 to assess the quality of included studies. We included 172 studies reporting on EDL and EML after screening 3,813 articles titles and abstracts and 1,545 full-text papers. Most (75%, n = 129) studies were purely quantitative in design, comprising descriptive cross-sectional designs (60%, n = 104), 15% (n = 26) were purely qualitative, and 10% (n = 17) had mixed-methods approaches. There were no qualitative or randomised experimental studies about EDL. The main barrier facing the EML and EDL was poorly equipped health facilities-including unavailability or stock-outs of essential in vitro diagnostics and medicines. Financial and non-financial incentives to health facilities and workers were key enablers in implementing the EML; however, their impact differed from one context to another. Only fifty-six (33%) of the included studies were of high quality. Poorly equipped and stocked health facilities remain an implementation barrier to essential diagnostics and medicines. Health system interventions such as financial and non-financial incentives to improve their availability can be applied in different contexts. More implementation study designs, such as experimental and qualitative studies, are required to evaluate the effectiveness of essential lists.

Reasons for poor blood pressure control in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa: looking into 4P's (primary care, professional, patient, and public health policy) for improving blood pressure control: a scoping review

AIM

Hypertension control in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the worst (less than one out of ten) when compared to the rest of the world. Therefore, this scoping review was conducted to identify and describe the possible reasons for poor blood pressure (BP) control based on 4Ps' (patient, professional, primary healthcare system, and public health policy) factors.

METHODS

PRISMA extension for scoping review protocol was used. We systematically searched articles written in the English language from January 2000 to May 2020 from the following databases: PubMed/Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google scholar.

RESULTS

Sixty-eight articles were included in this scoping review. The mean prevalence of hypertension, BP control, and patient adherence to prescribed medicines were 20.95%, 11.5%, and 60%, respectively. Only Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia out of ten countries started annual screening of the high-risk population for hypertension. Reasons for nonadherence to prescribed medicines were lack of awareness, lack of access to medicines and health services, professional inertia to intensify drugs, lack of knowledge on evidence-based guidelines, insufficient government commitment, and specific health behaviors related laws. Lack of screening for high-risk patients, non-treatment adherence, weak political commitment, poverty, maternal and child malnutrition were reasons for the worst BP control.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the rate of BP treatment, control, and medication adherence was low in Eastern SSA. Screening for high-risk populations was inadequate. Therefore, it is crucial to improve government commitment, patient awareness, and access to medicines, design country-specific annual screening programs, and empower clinicians to follow individualized treatment and conduct medication adherence research using more robust tools.