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THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME ON CLINICAL PARAMETERS OF DIABETIC AND HYPERTENSIVE CIVIL SERVANTS AND RETIREES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

Offu Ogochukwu Fidelia, Ifudu David Ndu and Ejim Chukwuka Ejim

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was founded with the aim of ensuring that every Nigerian has access to good healthcare but majority of persons currently covered by NHIS are civil servants who pay only 10% of the cost of their prescribed drugs on consulting a doctor. Hence, the civil servants are motivated to receive effective health care. On the other hand, majority of the retired civil servants are no longer covered by NHIS and would have to exhaust their pension for relatively high cost of treatment for geriatric ailments. Significantly, the high cost of treatment of terminal and/or geriatric illness is one the major causes of adult mortality and untimely death in Nigeria. It is a strong barrier to assessing effective healthcare. Consequently, the health status of many retirees is often debilitating and impacted negatively while that of the civil servants is virile and reasonably secured. Hence, this study aims at determining the impact of NHIS on the clinical parameters of Civil servants and Retirees who are diabetic and hypertensive. The Study was carried out at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. 210 patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled into the study but only 200 participated till the end of the study. Clinical parameters were collected at baseline (first day of recruiting a patient) and at exit (3 months into the study). Data collected from each participant include: Demographic factors; Blood pressure readings; Fasting Blood Sugar; Random Blood Sugar; Glycosylated haemoglobin; Electrolyte, Urea, Creatinine; lipid profile (High Density Lipoprotein, Low Density Lipoprotein, Very Low Density Lipoproteins, Total Cholesterol, and Triglycerides). Data were analysed using SPSS Version 22.0 software. Characteristics of groups were compared using student t-test for continuous variables. Results were set to be significant at p<0.05. Keywords: Insurance, Diabetes, Hypertension, Civil Servants, Retirees, Clinical Parameters, Nigeria.

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