Author(s)

Rashid M. Ansari, Hassan Hosseinzadeh, Nicholas Zwar

School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

This review article is aimed at describing the primary healthcare system of Pakistan and its challenges in the face of epidemic of type 2 diabetes, focusing particularly on the middle-aged population of rural area of Pakistan. The main concern in Pakistan is that its middle-aged population is facing the onslaught of obesity and overweight due to lack of physical activity. In addition unhealthy eating habits making it more difficult for this population to control their weight. All these factors are contributing to a high risk of type 2 diabetes for the population of Pakistan. This article provides insight into the primary health care system of Pakistan and highlights its deficiencies by identifying that its primary healthcare system has a poor utilization of health care services, the poor accessibility to health system and poor management of diabetes by the healthcare system, gender disparity and inequity in the health care system. The primary objective of this study is to provide an overview of self-management of diabetes among the middle-aged population of Pakistan and to identify the overall deficiencies in the primary healthcare system, its delivery and access to the system, barriers to self-management of diabetes and quality of life in that region.

Type 2 Diabetes, Self-Management, Epidemiology of Type 2 Diabetes, Primary Health Care System of Pakistan, Challenges to Self-Management

Ansari, R. , Hosseinzadeh, H. and Zwar, N. (2016) Primary Healthcare System of Pakistan: Challenges to Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes. Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, 6, 173-182. doi: 10.4236/ojemd.2016.67023.