Disruptions in maternal and child health service utilization during COVID-19: analysis from eight sub-Saharan African countries.

ABSTRACT: The coronavirus-19 pandemic and its secondary effects threaten the continuity of essential health services delivery, which may lead to worsened population health and a protracted public health crisis. We quantify such disruptions, focusing on maternal and child health, in eight sub-Saharan countries. Service volumes are extracted from administrative systems for 63 954 facilities in eight countries: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Somalia. Using an interrupted time series design and an ordinary least squares regression model with facility-level fixed effects, we analyze data from January 2018 to February 2020 to predict what service utilization levels would have been in March-July 2020 in the absence of the pandemic, accounting for bo

SUBMITTER: Shapira G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8344431 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature