ArticleGlobal health research and policy2024
Access to essential medicines for diabetes care: availability, price, and affordability in central Ethiopia.
Article in Global health research and policy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Challenges and barriers in managing Type 2 diabetes: insights from a qualitative study of patients' experiences at a university hospital in Qassim, Saudi Arabia.Global health action · 2026Article
- Article
- Availability of essential medicines in conflict-affected african regions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Conflict and health · 2026Review
- Availability, prices and affordability of nationally negotiated antidiabetic medicines in China: a national survey.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- A Need to Shift from Glucose Centered to Cardio-Renal Centered Diabetes Care in Ethiopia.Ethiopian journal of health sciences · 2026Article
- Exploring factors affecting access to non-communicable disease medicines in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Availability of essential medicines for non-communicable diseases: a scoping review of challenges and opportunities.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Pakistan's first medicine price deregulation policy: assessing its impact on prices, affordability, and availability of oral anti-diabetic medicines in private pharmacies.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Evaluation of diabetes care services, data quality, and availability of resources in Ethiopia: Difference-in-differences analysis of the NORAD-WHO NCDs' midterm project evaluation.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Availability, price, and affordability of diabetes mellitus and thyroid dysfunction medicines in South Wollo zone, Northeast Ethiopia.BMC health services research · 2024Article
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6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundDiabetes is a major global public health burden. Effective diabetes management is highly dependent on the availability of affordable and quality-assured essential medicines (EMs) which is a challenge especially in low-and-middle-income countries such as Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the accessibility of EMs used for diabetes care in central Ethiopia's public and private medicine outlets with respect to availability and affordability parameters.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 60 selected public and private medicine outlets in central Ethiopia from January to February 2022 using the World Health Organization/Health Action International (WHO/HAI) standard tool to assess access to EMs. We included EMs that lower glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol as these are all critical for diabetes care. Availability was determined as the percentage of surveyed outlets per sector in which the selected lowest-priced generic (LPG) and originator brand (OB) products were found. The number of days' wages required by the lowest paid government worker (LPGW) to purchase a one month's supply of medicines was used to measure affordability while median price was determined to assess patient price and price markup difference between public procurement and retail prices.
resultsAcross all facilities, availability of LPG and OB medicines were 34.6% and 2.5% respectively. Only two glucose-lowering (glibenclamide 5 mg and metformin 500 mg) and two blood pressure-lowering medications (nifedipine 20 mg and hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg) surpassed the WHO's target of 80% availability. The median price based on the least measurable unit of LPG diabetes EMs was 1.6 ETB (0.033 USD) in public and 4.65 ETB (0.095 USD) in private outlets. The cost of one month's supply of diabetes EMs was equivalent to 0.3 to 3.1 days wages in public and 1.0 to 11.0 days wages in private outlets, respectively, for a typical LPGW. Thus, 58.8% and 84.6% of LPG diabetes EMs included in the price analysis were unaffordable in private and public outlets, respectively.
conclusionsThere are big gaps in availability and affordability of EMs used for diabetes in central Ethiopia. Policy makers should work to improve access to diabetes EMs. It is recommended to increase government attention to availing affordable EMs for diabetes care including at the primary healthcare levels which are more accessible to the majority of the population. Similar studies are also recommended to be conducted in different parts of Ethiopia.
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