DIABETES PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN NIGERIA: EXPLORING THE RESPONSE OF THE HEALTH SECTOR.

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic non-communicable disease (NCD) arising from disorders in carbohydrate metabolism. It affects about 422 million people worldwide and prevalence has been shown to be on the increase in Nigeria with an estimated 4 million affected people. Besides the effect on the quality of life, the disease poses an economic burden on the individuals, families and the Nigerian health systems. Thus, necessitating a review of the response towards prevention and control by the healthcare sector, the challenges as well as the existing policies. This will help determine how to move forward with current policies as well as how to implement better best practices. Methods: A desk study is carried out to explore the responses for diabetes prevention and control, policies and challenges of the Nigerian healthcare sector. This study was guided by the 2021 framework for action on diabetes prevention and control in the WHO eastern Mediterranean region to identify challenges of diabetes prevention and control. Also guiding this review is the Non-communicable disease (NCDs) policies programme theory by Loffreda et al. (2023) to identify existing policies in Nigeria. Results: Nigeria has demonstrated commendable efforts in implementing public health education and awareness as strategies for diabetes prevention and control. Findings show that there are challenges of poor knowledge of best diabetes care practices among healthcare professionals as well as insufficient number of workers in the healthcare facilities. In addition, the healthcare institutions especially at the primary healthcare levels were noted to be poorly equipped to manage DM. Finally, it was discovered that the policies for diabetes prevention and control were poorly implemented. All these findings have been linked to challenges in healthcare financing and poor leadership. Conclusions: Despite the increase in prevalence of diabetes mellitus, Nigeria has made little progress in diabetes care as well as implementing prevention and control policies. It is suggested that the country looks into improving on human resources, health institutions and healthcare financing.