ABSTRACT
Background: Pregnancy is both a risk factor for P. falciparum infection and development of severe malaria and, in Uganda, its control relies heavily in the administration of intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxinepyrimethamine (SP-IPTp) during antenatal care visits (ANC). COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted health systems globally. This study aims to assess trends in delivering malaria in pregnancy related healthcare services before and during Covid-19 in thirty health facilities in Northern Uganda. Method(s): Interrupted time series study comparing two periods: I) pre- Covid-19 (January 2018 to February 2020) and II) Covid-19 (from March 2020 to December 2021) period. Data were sourced from the District Health Information Management System II (DHIMS2) routinely collected indicators. Comparisons between the two periods were computed with a jointpoint regression model and Annual Average Percentage Changes (AAPC) were calculated. Result(s): The study involved data collected by 30 health facilities, 30 health facilities in Northern Uganda - including one hospital - with a catchment area of 506,276 inhabitants and an estimated number of pregnancies ranging from 21,440 to 23,315. Covid cumulative cases and deaths for Oyam districs are reported in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 2, during COVID period we found a significant reduction in the number of women accessing to at least 4 antenatal care (ANC) visits and taking at least three doses of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. The total number of pregnant women receiving Artemether-Lumefantrine for nonsevere malaria or being hospitalized for severe malaria, along with the total number of institutional deliveries and stillbirths followed kept following the trend recorded prior to the pandemic. Conclusion(s): The present study shows that, despite the international call for prioritization of maternal and reproductive health service delivery during COVID-19 pandemic, in Uganda, the essential care for malaria in pregnancy have been disrupted. This is concerning, as the failure to increase the delivery of SP-IPTp may impact malaria-related mortality.
ABSTRACT
SETTING: Six hospitals in four sub-Saharan African countries. OBJECTIVE: To examine the indirect effects of COVID-19 on health service utilisation and to explore the risk of bias in studies on prediction models. DESIGN: Monthly data were analysed using interrupted time-series modelling. We used linear mixed-effect models for the analysis of antenatal care visits, institutional deliveries, vaccinations, outpatient visits and hospital admissions, and generalised linear mixed-effect models for hospital mortality. RESULTS: During 2018–2020, the six hospitals recorded a total of 57,075 antenatal care visits, 38,706 institutional deliveries, 312,961 vaccinations, 605,925 out-patient visits and 143,915 hospital admissions. The COVID-19 period was associated with decreases in vacci-nations (− 575 vaccinations, P < 0.0001), outpatient visits (− 700 visits, P < 0.0001) and hospital admission (− 102 admission, P = 0.001);however, no statistically significant effects were found for antenatal care visits (P = 0.71) or institutional deliveries (P = 0.14). Mortality rate increased by 2% per month in the pre-COVID-19 period;however, a decreasing trend (by 2% per month) was observed during the COVID-19 period (P = 0.004). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses broadly confirmed the main findings with only minor inconsistencies. A reduction in outpatient visits was also observed in hospitals from countries with a higher Stringency Index and in urban hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic resulted in a reduction in health service utilisation. The decreases were less than anticipated from modelling studies.