Universal health coverage mitigated COVID-19 health-related consequences in Asia Oceania

Kumpol Saengtabtim; Jing Tang; Natt Leelawat; Shinichi Egawa; Anawat Suppasri; Fumihiko Imamura

doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103725

Universal health coverage mitigated COVID-19 health-related consequences in Asia Oceania

Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. 2023 Jun 15:92:103725. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103725. Epub 2023 Apr 28.

Authors

Kumpol Saengtabtim¹, Jing Tang^{2

3}, Natt Leelawat^{1

3}, Shinichi Egawa^{4

5}, Anawat Suppasri⁴, Fumihiko Imamura⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
² International School of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
³ Disaster and Risk Management Information Systems Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁴ International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, 468-1 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8572, Japan.
⁵ International Cooperation for Disaster Medicine, Tohoku University, 468-1 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8572, Japan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a continual challenge since 2020, and it continues to impact people and industries as a disaster caused by a biological hazard. This study examined universal health coverage (UHC) scores in relation to the performance in combating COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian region (SEAR) and the Western Pacific region (WPR), along with the State Party Self-Assessment Annual Reporting (SPAR) index under the international health regulations (IHC). The numbers of infections and deaths per million population from December 2019 to June 2022 were used as primary outcomes to measure countries' performance. Countries with UHC scores of 63 or higher had a significantly lower number of infected patients and deaths. In addition, several inter-capacity correlations within the SPAR capacities, including with C8 (the National Health Emergency Framework), as well as a very strong correlation to C4 (Food Safety), C5 (Laboratory), and C7 (Human Resources). Furthermore, C9 (Health Service Provisions) has a very strong correlation to C1 (Legislation and Financing), C2 (International Health Regulation Coordination and a National IHR Focal Point function), and C4 (Food Safety), suggesting that the capability to manage an emerging infectious disease form blocks of capacities. In conclusion, UHC clearly mitigated the health-related consequences of COVID-19 in South-East Asia Region (SEAR) and Western Pacific Region (WPR). Investigating the correlation between the SPAR capacities and UHC is a promising approach for future research, including the importance of the provision of health services, points of entry, and, most importantly, risk communications as critical factors for managing pandemic. This study constitutes a good opportunity to apply the SPAR index to define which capacities correlate with the outcome of the pandemic in terms of infections and deaths.

Keywords: And universal health coverage; Asia oceania; Health coverage; Health risk management frameworks; International health regulation.