Stochastic frontier approach to efficiency analysis of health facilities in providing services for non-communicable diseases in eight LMICs.

Background: The rising burden of non-communicable diseases presents an increasing public health challenge to many low- and middle-income countries. This problem may be compounded in health systems with lower levels of technical efficiency (TE).

Methods: This study used recent Service Provision Assessments data to estimate the level of TEs of health facilities in eight countries. Initially, the general and disease-specific service readiness indexes are estimated. Finally, the production function is estimated using the exposures and the outcomes of the model.

Results: Evidence shows that the general and disease-specific service readiness indexes are significantly associated with an increase in the number of outpatient visits. Outpatient visits may increase by 14% with an increase in health worker density. Similarly, outpatient visits may increase by 0.3% with a unit increase in the general and diabetes service readiness indexes. Furthermore, outpatient visits may increase by 0.4% and 0.8% with an increase in services readiness for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. respectively. Overall, the level of TE score suggests the need for improvement.

Conclusions: Facility-level service readiness for chronic diseases is quite low. Therefore, improving health outcomes related to chronic diseases requires urgent investment in high-quality health systems in these countries.