Measuring the impact of community-based interventions on type 2 diabetes control during the COVID-19 pandemic in Cape Town – A mixed methods study

South African Family Practice

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Measuring the impact of community-based interventions on type 2 diabetes control during the COVID-19 pandemic in Cape Town – A mixed methods study
 
Creator David, Neal J. Bresick, Graham Moodaley, Natasha von Pressentin, Klaus B.
 
Subject Family medicine; primary care; primary health care COVID-19; type 2 diabetes; home delivery of medication; glycaemic control; primary care; district healthcare; community health workers; mixed methods
Description Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposed the risks of poorly controlled noncommunicable diseases, especially in persons with diabetes. The pandemic outbreak in Cape Town, South Africa, required a rapid reorganisation of primary care services. Community-based measures were activated to ensure continuity of care by implementing home delivery of medication by community health workers. After five months of de-escalated chronic care, observations at an urban primary care facility suggested that noncommunicable disease patients had not overtly decompensated despite suspending regular in-facility services. This study attempted to understand what impact de-escalation of regular care and escalation of community-based interventions had on type 2 diabetes patients at this primary care facility.Methods: A mixed methods study design was used, consisting of data captured prospectively from diabetic patients who returned to the facility for routine care post-lockdown, as well as qualitative interviews to ascertain patients’ experiences of the home delivery service.Results: The data set included 331 (72%) patients in the home delivery group and 130 (28%) in the non-home delivery group. Regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between home delivery and improved diabetic control (p  0.01), although this may be because of confounding factors. The mean glycaemic control was suboptimal both at baseline and post-lockdown in both groups. Interviews with 83 study patients confirmed the acceptability of the home delivery intervention.Conclusion: The rapid reorganisation of primary care services illustrates the versatility of a functional community-oriented primary care service, although not fully developed yet, to adapt to emerging community healthcare needs in the pandemic era.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The research received funding from Percept Actuaries and Consultants drawn from a COVID-19 grant provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Date 2022-08-18
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article Mixed-methods
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/safp.v64i1.5558
 
Source South African Family Practice; Vol 64, No 1 (2022): Part 3; 9 pages 2078-6204 2078-6190
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5558/7504 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5558/7505 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5558/7506 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5558/7507
 
Coverage South Africa; Western Cape; Cape Town Metropole 2020-2021 Adults
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Neal J. David, Graham Bresick, Natasha Moodaley, Klaus B. von Pressentin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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