ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 271
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Continuum of care for diabetic patients during COVID-19
pandemic in primary healthcare, Egypt
A/Prof Nagwa Hegazy1, Marwa M Mohasseb1, Reda Fathy Aly Anbar2, Nora A Khalil1
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Menoufia University, 2Helwan University
Background
COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected health services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
especially those vulnerable and requiring regular or long-term care. This study aims to gain insights into
the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on the accessibility of health services and healthcare
of diabetic patients in primary healthcare.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural area on 400 diabetic participants. A pretested
semistructured multidimensional questionnaire in the Arabic language was utilised in the study. It
consists of four parts: the first for the Sociodemographic data, the second for status of the clinical
diabetic investigations during the lockdown, the third for the medication adherence and the fourth
entailed questions pertaining to barriers for primary healthcare visit.
Results
About half the participants suffered from difficulty in healthcare service accessibility. The most
significant predictors were older age, female gender, lower education level, internet use, low and
middle socioeconomic standard and depending on private healthcare facilities. Costly services
followed by limited work hours, fear of infection and difficulty using the internet were the main
challenges they faced during their doctor visit. The more difficult the accessibility, the lower the
adherence to medication. Telemedicine was the adopted alternative during the pandemic.
Conclusion
Medical health services in primary healthcare were extremely affected during the pandemic and
consequently medication adherence. Telemedicine was used as a coping strategy to overcome limited
accessibility to DM-related healthcare services during the COVID-19 lockdown.
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