Improving Diabetes Treatment in Ghana: Modelling Self-Management Behaviour and Public Health Interventions - Dr Eunice Twumwaa Tagoe (Adwubi)
Event Date: 3 December 2025
Speaker: Dr Eunice Twumwaa Tagoe (Adwubi)
Time: 2pm-3pm
Location: CW406b
Dr Eunice Twumwaa Tagoe (Adwubi) is a Research Associate with the England National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences, based at Newcastle University. She obtained her PhD in the Management Science department.
Although diabetes mellitus burden is escalating in Ghana, evidence of cost-effective interventions to support decision-making is limited in this setting. Despite ample evidence on clinical and pharmacological interventions’ impact on blood glucose control, less is known about the health and economic benefits of such interventions on wider population health. The understanding of how patients’ behaviour interacts with clinical services and public health policies within Ghana's socioeconomic environment is also limited. The WHO has recommended sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes, expanding medicine access and Universal Health Coverage for controlling diabetes and other chronic diseases, and there is evidence of their effectiveness in many countries. However, it is unclear the policies' clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in Ghana.
This research sought to improve understanding of the dynamic patients' self-management behaviours and how they influence blood glucose control, medicine adherence and clinical outcomes using agent-based modelling (ABM). The research then combines ABM with cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to examine the health and economic benefits of selected public health interventions: a 20% SSB tax, expanding medicine availability and insurance coverage. ABM captures the complexity and heterogeneity of patients' self-management behaviours while CEA compares the health outcomes and economic efficiency of the selected public health interventions, generating evidence to support policy decision-making.
The research makes various several contributions: 1) I develop an ABM conceptual model of the socioeconomic environment and clinical service delivery system, which is crucial exploring patients' self-management behaviours in different socio-economic environment. 2) I generate provides insights on the cost-effectiveness of SSB tax, expanding insurance coverage and increasing medicine availability from a government and patient perspective to support policy decision-making and resource allocation. 3) This research contributes to the decision analytical modelling and health technology assessment field by extending the application of ABM and CEA in a low-resourced setting, demonstrating its usefulness for supporting data collection and health policy decision-making in such settings. 4) Another innovative contribution is the application of both the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour to conceptualise health behaviours in the simulation model. Majority of studies use a single theory.
Published: 11 November 2025
