GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE DUE TO AMBULATORY CARE SENSITIVE CONDITIONS, 1990-2019.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To evaluate the long-term dynamics of health losses caused by ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) to justify the priorities of public policy regarding this group of diseases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The data used were obtained from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, the European database "Health for All", for 1990-2019. The study was conducted using bibliosemantic, historical and epidemiological study methods. RESULTS: Results: Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to ACSC over 30 years in Ukraine averaged 5145.4 years per 100,000 population (95% CI 4731.1 -5559.7), which is approximately 14% of DALYs of all reasons without a clear trend of change - compound annual growth rate (CARG) of 0.14%. These five causes -angina pectoris, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), lower respiratory infections, diabetes, and tuberculosis - account for 90% of the disease burden associated with ACSCs. There was an increasing trend in DALYs (CARG varied for different ACSCs in the range of 0.59-1.88%), except for COPD, where the decrease in CARG reached -3.16%. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: This longitudinal study found a small trend toward increased DALYs due to ACSCs. State measures to influence modified risk factors to reduce the burden of losses from ACSCs proved to be ineffective. To significantly reduce DALYs, a more clear and more systematic healthcare policy regarding ACSCs is needed, which includes a set of primary prevention measures, and organizational and economic strengthening of the primary health care.

NATIONAL HEALTH EXPENDITURE TRENDS, 2000 TO 2019.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To assess the long-term dynamics of health spending in Ukraine from the standpoint of readiness to make progress in the universal health coverage (UHC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: Data from the Global Health Expenditure Database, European Health for All database, World Bank Open Data, collected during 2000-2019 were used. The research was conducted using bibliosemantic, historical methods and benchmarking. RESULTS: Results: All indicators of health spending in Ukraine showed some growth: total and government health spending of % Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 34% (95% CI 13-55) and 28% (95% CI 8-48), total and government health spending per capita in US $ by 7.1 and 6.5 times and in Purchasing power parity (PPP) - by 4 and 3.8 times. Growth was interrupted during the global (2008) and national (2017-2019) financial crises. Out-of-pocket spending in Ukraine grew and amounted to 51.1% in 2019, which is by 2.1 times more than in the European region - 24.0% (15.5; 36.6). In 2019 Ukraine ranked among 10% of the countries with the worst combination of government health spending per share of GDP and share of OOPS in total health spending. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The study found an unsustainable upward dynamic in health spending. In the last decade, there has been a clear trend towards an increase % OOPS in total health spending against low, aimed at reducing government health spending as % of GDP, which could negatively affect UHC.

SUBSTANTIATION OF COMPONENTS OF AVAILABILITY AND INTEGRATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATED WITH AMBULATORY CARE SENSITIVE CONDITIONS IN UKRAINE.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: Identifying the components of availability of Primary Health Care (PHC) and integration between PHC and secondary Health care (SHC) which need strengthening to reduce the rate of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Hospitalizations (ACSH) in Ukraine. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The study was conducted in two stages: the focus of interviewing experts on the list of components of the availability of PHC and its integration with SHC; survey of our questionnaire is based on the results of the first stage of the study. The responses of 93 respondents - 20 experts and 73 general practitioners/family doctors - were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. RESULTS: Results: There were identified 14 components of PHC availability and 8 integration components of PHC with SHC, their quantitative value (in points) of impact on ACSH. The informativeness of components is confirmed by the agreement of opinions of experts on their list (concordance coefficient W = 0.75 -0.87; p <0.01) and the reliable correlations of scores of impact assessments of the identified components with overall values of the impact availability PHC and the integration between PHC and SHC on the ACSH. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The results of the study can be used to develop an action plan for reform of PHC, the implementation of which will reduce rates hospitalizations of Ambulatory care sensitive conditions and increase the efficiency use of limited resources of health care system of Ukraine.

Assessment of appropriateness of hospitalisations in Ukraine: analytical framework, method and findings.

OBJECTIVES: This article reviews the applicability of a customised version of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) to evaluate the magnitude of inappropriate hospitalisations in two regions of Ukraine. DATA AND METHODS: The original AEP was modified to develop a customised tool, which included criteria for the appropriateness of hospitalisation and duration of inpatient stay. The customisation of the tool followed the Delphi procedure. We randomly selected 381 medical records to test the feasibility and reliability of the method and 800 medical records to evaluate the scope of inappropriate hospitalisations. We used descriptive and analytical statistics, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Cohen's kappa to check the consistency between the findings of primary reviewers and experts. RESULT: We observed high levels of agreement in conclusions of primary reviewers (reference standard) and experts during testing of the reliability and validity of the method. The external validity check showed that the use of the tool by different experts provided high accuracy: 95.1 sensitivity, 76.6 specificity and area under ROC-curve (AUC)=0.948 (р<0.001) for analysis of the appropriateness of admissions; 95.3 sensitivity, 84.7 specificity and AUC=0.900 (р=0.001) for the duration of hospitalisations. Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ) indicated agreement in expert evaluations of 0.915 (95% СІ 0.799 to 1.000) and 0.812 (95% СІ 0.749 to 0.875), respectively.We found that over one-third of admissions (38.1%; 95% СІ 33.9 to 43.5) and over half of total bed-days were unnecessary (57.4%; 95% СІ 56.4 to 58.5). The highest levels of stay were observed in hospitals' general medicine departments (64.6%; 95% СІ 63.0 to 66.3)compared with other departments included in the analysis. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is robust in assessing the appropriateness of hospitalisations and duration of inpatient stays. The quantified levels of unnecessary hospital care indicate the need for improving efficiency and quality of care and optimising the excessive hospital capacities in Ukraine.