A National Laboratory Perspective: The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Management of Patients With Non-Communicable Disease in South Africa: Impact of COVID-19 on patients with noncommunicable diseases

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on test requests for the diagnosis and routine care of patients with various non-communicable diseases (NCD) across South Africa (SA). A retrospective audit of laboratory test requests received from hospital outpatient depart...

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Published in:Disaster medicine and public health preparedness Vol. 18; p. e13
Main Authors: Kruger, Elsie C., Van der Westhuizen, Diederick J., Erasmus, Rajiv T., Banderker, Razia B., Jacob, Doreen, Moodley, Nareshni, Ngxamngxa, Unathi, Kengne, Andre P., Zemlin, Annalise E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 30.01.2024
Subjects:
Chronic illnesses
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Diabetes
Disease prevention
Health care
Health care delivery
Health facilities
Laboratory tests
Lipids
Metabolic disorders
Original Research
Pandemics
Prostate cancer
Public health
Thyroid
Thyroid diseases
South Africa
COVID-19 pandemic
primary care
non-communicable disease
outpatient
Africa
ISSN:1935-7893, 1938-744X, 1938-744X
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Summary:The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on test requests for the diagnosis and routine care of patients with various non-communicable diseases (NCD) across South Africa (SA). A retrospective audit of laboratory test requests received from hospital outpatient departments and primary healthcare facilities across SA was performed. The following analytes were studied: glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipids profiles, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and thyroxine (fT4), as well as triiodothyronine (fT3), serum protein electrophoresis (SPE), serum free light chains (SFLC), and prostate specific antigen (PSA); these tests were used as a proxy of NCD detection and follow-up. Requests received during the 3 waves of the pandemic were compared to requests received within the same period during 2017 - 2019. During the first wave, requests for all analytes were reduced, with the biggest reduction observed for SPE (- 37%); TSH (- 29%); fT4 (- 28%); and HbA1c (- 25%). Requests received from urban facilities showed a larger decrease compared to those from rural facilities. During the third wave there was an increase in requests for all analytes; the biggest increase observed was for fT3 (21%) and HbA1c (18%). The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the South African population receiving care in the public healthcare sector.
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ISSN:1935-7893
1938-744X
1938-744X
DOI:10.1017/dmp.2024.8