Health Related Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases During the Coronavirus Pandemic in Ethiopia: A Multi-Facility Study

Abstract BackgroundThe Coronavirus pandemic is presenting several challenges in Ethiopia on an unprecedented scale. It is affecting the country in different ways ranging from a significant impact on the economy to a disrupted public health delivery of both curative and preventive services. The aim of this study was to assess health related quality of life of patients with chronic non-communicable diseases during the Coronavirus pandemic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsA multi-facility based cross sectional study design was conducted in August 2020 among public health institutions in Addis Ababa. Health facilities were chosen purposively based on high number of patient flow. Participants from each health facility were drawn after proportional to size allocation. A translated EQ-5D-3L VAS instrument was used to collect data. Analysis was done using SPSS v.26.0. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, Spearman’s rank correlation test and Binary logistic regression were applied. ResultsOf the 409 participants included in the study, majority were in the age group of 46-60 (36%), females (56%), from hospitals (54.8%), jobless (25.4%), married (63.3%) and orthodox Christian (71.4%). Above two third of the patients reported no problems for self-care, usual activity and depression/anxiety. All dimensions showed an increasing proportion of moderate to severe problems in the age group beyond 45. Facility type (U=16651, P=0.001), comorbid condition (U=13248.00, P=0.000) and age (rs=-0.27, p=0.000) were found to show statistically significant score difference for GQoL. An overall prevalence of any problem was 59%. Education level, visit to a health center and marriage were associated with less odds of an affected HRQoL unlike lower monthly income and presence of comorbidities which were opposite.ConclusionsHRQoL of patients in the study settings was found to be suboptimal and below the general population. Education and arrangement of safe and quality health services to such group of patients is warranted especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.