Background. Polytrauma patients require special facilities to care for their injuries. In HICs, these patients are rapidly transferred from the scene or the frst-health facility directly to a trauma center. However, in many LMICs, prehospital systems do not exist and there are long delays between arrivals at the frst-health facility and the trauma center. We aimed to quantify the delay and determine the predictors of mortality among polytrauma patients. Methodology. We consecutively enrolled adult polytrauma patients (≥18 years) with ISS >15 referred to the Emergency Medicine Department of Muhimbili National Hospital, a major trauma center in Tanzania between August 2019 and January 2020. Based on a pilot study, the arrival of >6 hours after injury was considered a delay. Te outcome of interest was factors associated with delayed presentation and the association of timeliness with 7-day mortality. Results. We enrolled 120 (4.5%) referred polytrauma adult patients. Te median age was 30 years (IQR 25–39) and the ISS was 29 (IQR 24–34). The majority (85%) were males. While the median time from injury to frst-health facility was 40 minutes (IQR 33–50), the median time from injury to arrival at EMD-MNH, was 377 minutes (IQR 314–469). Delayed presentation was noted in more than half (54.2%) of participants, with the odds of dying being 1.4 times higher in the delayed
group (95% CI 0.3–5.6). Having a GCS <8 (AOR 16.3 (95% CI 3.1–86.3), hypoxia <92% (AOR 8.3 (95% CI 1.4–50.9), and hypotension <90 mmHg (R 7.3 (95% CI 1.6–33.6) were all independent predictors of mortality. Conclusion. Te majority of polytrauma patients arrive at the tertiary facilities delayed for more than 6 hours and a distance of more than 8 km between facilities is associated with delay. Hypotension, hypoxia, and GCS of less than 8 are independent predictors of poor outcome. In the interim, there is a need to expedite the transfer of polytrauma patients to trauma care capable centers.
Delayed diagnostic evaluation of symptomatic breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative study of Tanzanian women
Background
Women with breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa are commonly diagnosed at advanced stages. In Tanzania, more than 80% of women are diagnosed with stage III or IV disease, and mortality rates are high. This study explored factors contributing to delayed diagnostic evaluation among women with breast cancer in Tanzania.
Methods
A qualitative study was performed at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Twelve women with symptomatic pathologically proven breast cancer were recruited. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Swahili. Interviews explored the women’s journey from symptom recognition to diagnosis, including the influence of breast cancer knowledge and pre-conceptions, health seeking behaviors, psychosocial factors, preference for alternative treatments, and the contribution of culture and norms. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and translated into English. Thematic analysis was facilitated by a cloud-based qualitative analysis software.
Results
All women reported that their first breast symptom was a self-identified lump or swelling. Major themes for factors contributing to delayed diagnostic presentation of breast cancer included lack of basic knowledge and awareness of breast cancer and misconceptions about the disease. Participants faced barriers with their local primary healthcare providers, including symptom mismanagement and delayed referrals for diagnostic evaluation. Other barriers included financial hardships, fear and stigma of cancer, and use of traditional medicine. The advice and influence of family members and friends played key roles in healthcare-seeking behaviors, serving as both facilitators and barriers.
Conclusion
Lack of basic knowledge and awareness of breast cancer, stigma, financial barriers, and local healthcare system barriers were common factors contributing to delayed diagnostic presentation of breast cancer. The influence of friends and family also played key roles as both facilitators and barriers. This information will inform the development of educational intervention strategies to address these barriers and improve earlier diagnosis of symptomatic breast cancer in Tanzania.
An equity analysis on the household costs of accessing and utilising maternal and child health care services in Tanzania
Background
Direct and time costs of accessing and using health care may limit health care access, affect welfare loss, and lead to catastrophic spending especially among poorest households. To date, limited attention has been given to time and transport costs and how these costs are distributed across patients, facility and service types especially in poor settings. We aimed to fill this knowledge gap.
Methods
We used data from 1407 patients in 150 facilities in Tanzania. Data were collected in January 2012 through patient exit-interviews. All costs were disaggregated across patients, facility and service types. Data were analysed descriptively by using means, medians and equity measures like equity gap, ratio and concentration index.
Results
71% of patients, especially the poorest and rural patients, accessed care on foot. The average travel time and cost were 30 minutes and 0.41USD respectively. The average waiting time and consultation time were 47 min and 13 min respectively. The average medical cost was 0.23 USD but only18% of patients paid for health care. The poorest and rural patients faced substantial time burden to access health care (travel and waiting) but incurred less transport and medical costs compared to their counterparts. The consultation time was similar across patients. Patients spent more time travelling to public facilities and dispensaries while incurring less transport cost than accessing other facility types, but waiting and consultation time was similar across facility types. Patients paid less amount in public than in private facilities. Postnatal care and vaccination clients spent less waiting and consultation time and paid less medical cost than antenatal care clients.
Conclusions
Our findings reinforce the need for a greater investment in primary health care to reduce access barriers and cost burdens especially among the worse-offs. Facility’s construction and renovation and increased supply of healthcare workers and medical commodities are potential initiatives to consider. Other initiatives may need a multi-sectoral collaboration
Spatial clustering of maternal health services utilization and its associated factors in Tanzania: Evidence from 2015/2016 Tanzania Demographic Health Survey
Background: Utilization of maternal health services is the most significant component of safe motherhood, with severe effects on mother and child health. Though early and timely utilization of maternal health care services is recommended, many women do not access them. This study is aimed at examining the spatial clustering of maternal health services utilization and its associated socio-economic factors in Tanzania.
Methods: The secondary data analysis was conducted using Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey (TDHS-MIS) 2015-16. Spatial clusters of high and low use of maternal health care were detected using the Bernoulli model implemented in SaTScan™ software. The multiple logistic regression model was used to identify the predictors of maternal health services utilization in Tanzania.
Results: The Spatial analysis revealed that antenatal care and delivery care are heterogeneous across regions. High utilization was detected in Eastern and East-central regions, while low utilization was detected in northern and northwest regions. Moreover, mother’s age, education level, wealth status, and several children were identified as predictors of the use of antenatal care and delivery care.
Conclusion: Results suggest spatial variation across the regions, though the data are insufficient to identify factors associated with a specific cluster. More data and analysis are needed to establish factors associated with high and low utilization of maternal health care services.
Quality of life among out-patients with long-term indwelling urinary catheter attending Urology Clinic at a Tertiary Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania
Background
This study aimed to determine quality of life (QoL) among patients living with long-term indwelling urinary catheter (IUC) at home in the Northwestern Tanzania. To the best of our knowledge for the first time in Africa, we report on quality of life for patients living with a long-term IUC at home.
Methods
This was a descriptive cross‑sectional study conducted between December 2016 and September 2017. A total of 202 out-patients aged 18 years and above living with a long-term IUC were conveniently recruited. The QoL was determined using WHOQOL‑BREF tool. Quantitative data were entered into Microsoft Excel for cleaning and coding, then into STATA software version 13.0 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to compute means and standard deviations for numerical variables as well as frequencies for nominal and ordinal variables. Significance of association between various variables and QoL were tested using t test with equal variances. Inferential statistics applied included an independent sample’s t‑test for comparing numerical socio-demographic variables. A P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The mean score indicating good QoL according to our study is a mean score of 50 and above. The higher the score the higher the QoL.
Results
Median age of participants was 69 (IQR 61–77) years. Majority of participants were males (195, 96.5%), married (187, 92.6%), and having primary education (116, 57.3%). Generally, the QoL was poor in all the domains: mean score for physical health being 36.67 ± 0.89, psychological 29.54 ± 0.87, social relationship 49.59 ± 1.61, and environment 26.05 ± 0.63. Married participants were slightly better under social domain 51.1 ± 1.6 than singles 31.1 ± 5.4; P-value 0.001. Those with primary education & above were slightly better in environmental domain 26.1 ± 0.7 than those with no formal education 23.5 ± 1.5; P-value 0.039.
Conclusion
QoL of participants with a long-term IUC in Northwestern Tanzania is generally poor in all domains. Those with primary education & above and the married were slightly better in environmental and social domains respectively. We recommend on the needs of improved social economic status and the importance of close follow up at home for the married participants living with long-term IUC.
The role of telepathology in diagnosis of premalignant and malignant cervical lesions Implementation at a tertiary hospital in Northern Tanzania
Introduction
Adequate and timely access to pathology services is a key to scale up cancer control, however, there is an extremely shortage of pathologists in Tanzania. Telepathology (scanned images microscopy) has the potential to increase access to pathology services and it is increasingly being employed for primary diagnosis and consultation services. However, the experience with the use of telepathology in Tanzania is limited. We aimed to investigate the feasibility of using scanned images for primary diagnosis of pre-malignant and malignant cervical lesions by assessing its equivalency to conventional (glass slide) microscopy in Tanzania.
Methods
In this laboratory-based study, assessment of hematoxylin and eosin stained glass slides of 175 cervical biopsies were initially performed conventionally by three pathologists independently. The slides were scanned at x 40 and one to three months later, the scanned images were reviewed by the pathologists in blinded fashion. The agreement between initial and review diagnoses across participating pathologists was described and measured using Cohen’s kappa coefficient (κ).
Results
The overall concordance of diagnoses established on conventional microscopy compared to scanned images across three pathologists was 87.7%; κ = 0.54; CI (0.49–0.57).The overall agreement of diagnoses established by local pathologist on conventional microscopy compared to scanned images was 87.4%; κ = 0.73; CI (0.65–0.79). The concordance of diagnoses established by senior pathologist compared to local pathologist on conventional microscopy and scanned images was 96% and 97.7% respectively. The inter-observer agreement (κ) value were 0.93, CI (0.87–1.00) and 0.94, CI (0.88–1.00) for conventional microscopy and scanned images respectively.
Conclusions
All κ coefficients expressed good intra- and inter-observer agreement, suggesting that telepathology is sufficiently accurate for primary diagnosis in surgical pathology. The discrepancies in interpretation of pre-malignant lesions highlights the importance of p16 immunohistochemistry in definitive diagnosis in these lesions. Sustainability factors including hardware and internet connectivity are essential components to be considered before telepathology may be deemed suitable for widely use in Tanzania.
Essential Emergency and Critical Care as a health system response to critical illness and the COVID19 pandemic: What does it cost?
Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) is a novel approach to the care of critically ill patients, focusing on first-tier, low-cost care and designed to be feasible even in low-resourced and low-staffed settings. This is distinct from advanced critical care, usually conducted in ICUs with specialised staff, facilities and technologies. This paper estimates the incremental cost of EECC and advanced critical care for the planning of care for critically ill patients in low resource settings with Kenya and Tanzania as case studies.
The incremental costing took a health systems perspective. A normative approach based on the ingredients defined through the recently published global consensus on EECC was used. The setting was a district hospital in which the patient is provided with the definitive care typically provided at that level for their condition. Quantification of resource use was based on COVID-19 as a tracer condition using clinical expertise. Local prices were used where available, and all costs were converted to USD2020.
The costs per patient day of EECC is estimated to be 1.01 USD, 10.83 USD and 32.84 USD in Tanzania and 1.76 USD, 14.86 USD and 37.43 USD in Kenya, for moderate, severe and critical COVID-19 patients respectively. The cost per patient day of advanced critical care is estimated to be 13.11 USD and 17.33 USD for severe and 297.30 USD and 369.64 USD for critical COVID-19 patients in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively.
EECC, an approach of providing the essential care to all critically ill patients, is low-cost. The components of EECC are basic and universal and, when assessed against the existing gaps in critical care coverage and costs of advanced critical care, suggest that it should be a priority area of investment for health systems around the globe.
A Journey Undertaken by Families to Access General Surgical Care for their Children at Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania; Prospective Observational Cohort Study
Background
A majority of the 2 billion children lacking access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care reside in low-and middle-income countries. A barrier to tackling this issue is the paucity of information regarding children’s journey to surgical care. We aimed to explore children’s journeys and its implications on accessing general paediatric surgical care at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), a tertiary centre in Tanzania.
Methods
A prospective observational cohort study was undertaken at MNH, recruiting patients undergoing elective and emergency surgeries. Data on socio-demographic, clinical, symptoms onset and 30-days post-operative were collected. Descriptive statistics and Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis and Fisher’s exact tests were used for data analysis.
Result
We recruited 154 children with a median age of 36 months. The majority were referred from regional hospitals due to a lack of paediatric surgery expertise. The time taken to seeking care was significantly greater in those who self-referred (p = 0.0186). Of these participants, 68.4 and 31.1% were able to reach a referring health facility and MNH, respectively, within 2 h of deciding to seek care. Overall insurance coverage was 75.32%. The median out of pocket expenditure for receiving care was $69.00. The incidence of surgical site infection was 10.2%, and only 2 patients died.
Conclusion
Although there have been significant efforts to improve access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care, there is still a need to strengthen children’s surgical care system. Investing in regional hospitals may be an effective approach to improve access to children surgical care.
Clinicopathological Patterns and Surgical Outcomes of Primary Brain Tumors Managed at a Tertiary Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania:a Cross-sectional Analysis
Purpose: The epidemiology of brain tumors varies globally between different countries and there is observed poor outcomes in lower- and middle-income countries. Our aim is to analyze the clinicopathological pattern of intracranial tumors in our setting and their post-surgical outcomes.
Methods: This is a retrospective study. Data was obtained from clinical records of patients with intracranial tumors treated at our neurosurgery unit between 2019 and 2020. Only patients with primary brain tumors who underwent surgical intervention were included. Analysis was done to identify factors associated with patient outcomes (mortality/survival and performance status).
Results: 39 patients with primary brain tumors underwent surgery (adults 72.8%, males 53.8%, mean age 35.8years). Gliomas (46.2%) comprised the most common tumor diagnosis overall and craniopharyngiomas were the most common tumors in pediatric patients (27.3%). Most patients (83.3%) had a poor performance status before surgery. Gross tumor resection (25.6%) was low and few patients (31.4%) underwent adjuvant therapy. 30-day mortality rate (10.3%) and one year mortality rate (46.2%) were high. Pediatric patients had a much worse outcome (46.2% mortality rate compared to 25% in adults, and 80% with poor performance status) as did males (38.1% mortality rate compared to 27.8% in females). Gliomas accounted for majority (69.2%) of the deaths.
Conclusion: Delayed presentation and poor access to adjuvant therapies are important contributors of the high mortality and abandonment of treatment. Inadequate long-term follow-up is a hinderance to optimal neurooncological care in our setting.
Patterns and Surgical Outcomes of Primary Brain Tumors Managed at a Tertiary Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania: a Cross-sectional Analysis
Purpose: The epidemiology of brain tumors varies globally between different countries and there is observed poor outcomes in lower- and middle-income countries. Our aim is to analyze the clinicopathological pattern of intracranial tumors in our setting and their post-surgical outcomes.
Methods: This is a retrospective study. Data was obtained from clinical records of patients with intracranial tumors treated at our neurosurgery unit between 2019 and 2020. Only patients with primary brain tumors who underwent surgical intervention were included. Analysis was done to identify factors associated with patient outcomes (mortality/survival and performance status).
Results: 39 patients with primary brain tumors underwent surgery (adults 72.8%, males 53.8%, mean age 35.8years). Gliomas (46.2%) comprised the most common tumor diagnosis overall and craniopharyngiomas were the most common tumors in pediatric patients (27.3%). Most patients (83.3%) had a poor performance status before surgery. Gross tumor resection (25.6%) was low and few patients (31.4%) underwent adjuvant therapy. 30-day mortality rate (10.3%) and one year mortality rate (46.2%) were high. Pediatric patients had a much worse outcome (46.2% mortality rate compared to 25% in adults, and 80% with poor performance status) as did males (38.1% mortality rate compared to 27.8% in females). Gliomas accounted for majority (69.2%) of the deaths.
Conclusion: Delayed presentation and poor access to adjuvant therapies are important contributors of the high mortality and abandonment of treatment. Inadequate long-term follow-up is a hinderance to optimal neurooncological care in our setting.