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The Impact of Health Systems on Diabetes Care in Low and Lower Middle Income Countries

  • Health Care Delivery Systems and Implementation in Diabetes (EB Morton-Eggleston, Section Editor)
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Abstract

This review will highlight the current challenges and barriers to diabetes management in low and lower middle income countries using the World Health Organization’s 6 Building Blocks for Health Systems (service delivery; healthcare workforce; information; medical products, vaccines and technologies; financing; and leadership and governance). Low and lower middle income countries are characterized by low levels of income and insufficient health expenditure. These countries face a shift in disease burden from communicable to non-communicable diseases including diabetes. Many argue that health systems in these countries do not have the capacity to meet the needs of people with chronic conditions such as diabetes. A variety of barriers exist in terms of organization of health systems and care, human resources, sufficient information for decision-making, availability and affordability of medicines, policies, and alleviating the financial burden of care. These health system barriers need to be addressed, taking into account the need to have diabetes included in the global development agenda and also tailoring the response to local contexts including the needs of people with diabetes.

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  1. Division of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 6, CH-1211, Geneva 14, Switzerland

    David Beran

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Health Care Delivery Systems and Implementation in Diabetes

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Table 2 Data on the burden of diabetes in low income and lower middle income countries
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Beran, D. The Impact of Health Systems on Diabetes Care in Low and Lower Middle Income Countries. Curr Diab Rep 15, 20 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-015-0591-8

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