Impact of COVID-19 on the Management of Hypertension: A Perspective on Disease Severity, Service Use Patterns and Expenditures from Ghana’s Health Insurance Claims Data (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Hypertension is a leading cause of death and morbidity in Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries, but management has historically suffered from the fragility of health systems in these countries. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated measures. Our study examines and quantifies the effect of the pandemic on the management of hypertension in Ghana by determining changes in disease severity and presentation, as well as changes in service use patterns and expenditures. We used cross-sectional data to perform an impact evaluation of COVID-19 on hypertension management before and during the pandemic. We employed statistical tests to analyse medical claims data from Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority database. The study duration includes a 12-month reference/pre-pandemic period (March 2019- February 2020) relative to the target/pandemic period (March 2020 - February 2021). We observed significant changes in health services use for hypertension during the pandemic. While there was a 20% reduction in the number of hypertension claimants in the pandemic year, there was an increase in hypertension severity as measured by the number of hypertension episodes per claimant (a 17.6% increase (95% CI. 15.0% – 20.3%; p = 0.031)). There was also an 18.64% or $22.88 (95% CI$12 – $25, p = 0.01042) increase in the average cost per hypertension claimant in the pandemic year. The increase in episodes per claimant had the largest financial impact on the average cost per claimant. The findings from our studies are relevant for future policymaking and strategy implementation for hypertension control in Ghana.