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Project

The rise of non-communicable diseases, and implications for health care delivery and health programmes in the Philippines

The proposed PhD research focuses on diabetes in the Philippines. Recent estimates show an increasing number of people with diabetes in the country (Shaw 2010). The implication of a growing caseload of people with chronic and lifelong conditions to the health system is poorly researched. Currently, frontline public general health services are organized to provide acute and episodic care and to deliver selected high impact interventions through the different disease control programs.
2.1. Caring for people with diabetes: health seeking behaviour among diabetics in the Philippines This research hopes to contribute to better organization of care for people with diabetes by understanding in-depth their health seeking behaviour and elaborating the pathways of care that they take. The research will also look into the financial burden of diabetes to individuals and their families and gain insight into this and other barriers to access to services from the perspective of the patient.
2.2. Adaptations in disease control programs The different disease control programs (DCPs, “vertical programs”) remain among the strongest elements of the health system in the Philippines. They interface fairly well with frontline public health services but maintain specific set of activities and targets. How these different DCPs should evolve to adapt to the changing disease burden, particularly with the increasing prevalence of diabetes, remains poorly understood. There are obvious epidemiologic and health care delivery overlaps (e.g. TB and Diabetes; Diabetes and Maternal Health) but the collaboration among DCPs remain limited. This research will contribute to collaborative activities between diabetes care (in general health services) and DCPs by mapping the different potential overlaps in terms of service delivery and support and management functions. In particular, the proposed PhD work focuses on the link between TB and diabetes. The research will elaborate the epidemiologic overlap between TB and Diabetes in the Philippines. The project will also look at the feasibility and outcomes of bidirectional screening and having blood sugar monitoring and diabetes counselling among TB patients with diabetes who are undergoing TB treatment.
Datum:1 jul 2012 →  Heden
Trefwoorden:B680-volksgezondheid
Project type:PhD project