Assessment of the Availability and Distribution of Health Services for Managing Common Non-Communicable Diseases in Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2025-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of preventable deaths globally, accounting for 39% of deaths in Ethiopia, where the health system is still underprepared to address them. Thus there is a need to have more evidence on health service coverage for responding to growing challenges of managing NCDs.
Objective: This study aims to assess the availability, distribution and readiness of health services for managing common NCDs in Ethiopia.
Methods: A secondary analysis of the 2014 and 2021/22 Ethiopian Service Provision Assessment Survey were done to examine the availability and distribution of health services facilities and its change in over the two periods. Service readiness score and logistic regression was also evaluated to predict if there is association between structural factors and NCD service availability. Data was analyzed using STATA statistical software. The 95% CI and P values were considered to determine the significance level. Result: The general service availability for NCDs was 100%, 90%, 88%, 87.2%, 83.36%, 81.95%, 77%, 69.06%, and 54.22% in Harari, Addis Ababa, Somali, Benishangul, Amhara, Oromia, Afar, and Gambella regions, respectively, whereas it increased across all regions except in Benishangul-Gumuz (52.9%) and Harari (80%). The service availability for cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer were 90.6%, 94.2%, 69.6%, and 27.8% in 2014 while it were 94.5%, 93.7%, 69.6% and 32.8% in 2021/22. The mean service readiness significantly increased for cardiovascular diseases (23.9% to 41.3%), chronic respiratory diseases (32.6% to 44.0%), diabetes (20.1% to 38.3%), and cancer (29.4% to 41.3%) between 2014 and 2021/22. Hospitals, urban facilities, and government owned facilities are significantly more likely to provide NCD services.
Conclusion and recommendation: Even though, high proportion of facilities provide NCDs service (over 90% for CVD, diabetes and respiratory diseases) the actual readiness measured by tracer items remains lower (about 41–44%). Access to cancer services continues to lag significantly at 32.8%. There are also disparities across regions. Efforts need to be made to strengthen the quality of service and for regions showing low coverage.
Description
Keywords
Non-communicable Diseases, Service Availability, Service Readiness