Abstract
BACKGROUND: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and diabetes in particular, are on the rise even in sub-Saharan African countries. Despite this, access to care is still poor. This study aimed to assess barriers/facilitators to access NCDs services for children, adolescents and young people with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) in Mozambique. METHODS: A qualitative cross-sectional study using focus groups (FG) and key-informant interviews was conducted between September and October 2023, involving patients (16-30 years), caregivers of child and adolescent patients and health care staff of 5 health facilities. A deductive approach was adopted using the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) framework to classify themes referring to barriers/facilitators to access. Two researchers carried out quantitative content analysis independently, assessing the inter-rater agreement through Cohen's K. RESULTS: Four FGs were conducted with 26 patients (61.5% female, 16-24 years), three with 18 caregivers (83.3% female) and 16 interviews with healthcare workers. A total of 455 themes were identified, with a predominance of barriers (67.3%) compared to facilitators (32.7%) in accessing T1DM services. The area ''Capability'' was labelled significantly more often as a barrier (89.5%) than ''Motivation'' and ''Opportunities'' (60.2% and 62.6%, p < 0.001). The most frequent barriers were related to the psychological ability to accept and manage the disease in the absence of professional psychological support, inadequate interactions with healthcare personnel, long waits in the outpatient clinic and stigma towards diabetes in the community. Social support from family and friends appears to be an important facilitator. Social opportunities emerge more often as facilitators (76/105, 72.4%) than physical opportunities, which were 79.0% (n = 139/176) of the barriers in the 'Opportunities' area (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the difficulties of patients suffering from T1DM, in particular due to the lack of psychological support and inadequacies of the health services. It also points out the need to improve the training of healthcare personnel and to strengthen the health literacy of patients to improve recognition and management of the disease, respectively. Increased awareness by the community, supported by structured interventions, could also contribute to reducing stigma towards patients and improving the quality of care.