AUTHOR=Angeles Gustavo , Silverstein Hannah , Ahsan Karar Zunaid , Kibria Mohammad Golam , Rakib Nibras Ar , Escudero Gabriela , Singh Kavita , Mpiima Jamiru , Simmons Elizabeth , Weiss William 

TITLE=Estimating the effects of COVID-19 on essential health services utilization in Uganda and Bangladesh using data from routine health information systems

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1129581

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1129581

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: Since March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a major shock to health systems across the world. We examined national usage patterns for selected basic, essential health services, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda and Bangladesh, to determine whether COVID-19 affected reporting of service utilization and the use of health services in each country.Methods: We used routine health information system data since January 2017 to analyze reporting and service utilization patterns for a variety of health services. Using time series models to replicate pre-COVID-19 trajectories over time we estimated what levels would have been observed if COVID-19 had not occurred during the pandemic months, starting in March 2020. The difference between the observed and predicted levels is the COVID-19 effect on health services.