Un miembro del personal de la Building Foundation for Development ayuda a preparar suministros para su entrega a instalaciones sanitarias y campos de desplazados en Al Jazirah (Sudán), que actualmente acoge a desplazados internos que huyen del conflicto en Jartum (Sudán).
Stephen A. Spencer, Jamie Rylance, Jennifer K Quint, Stephen B. Gordon, Paul Dark, Ben Morton
Abstract
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of individual chronic conditions and multimorbidity among adults admitted to hospital in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: statistics for heterogeneity. To explore associations with age, sex, country-level income status, geographical region and risk of bias, we conducted pre-specified meta-regression, sub-group and sensitivity analyses. Findings: Of 6976 identified studies, 61 met the inclusion criteria, comprising data from 20 countries and 376 676 people. None directly reported multimorbidity, but instead reported prevalence for individual conditions. Among medical admissions, the highest prevalence was human immunodeficiency virus infection (36.4%; 95% CI: 31.3-41.8); hypertension (24.4%; 95% CI: 16.7-34.2); diabetes (11.9%; 95% CI: 9.9-14.3); heart failure (8.2%; 95% CI: 5.6-11.9); chronic kidney disease (7.7%; 95% CI: 3.9-14.7); and stroke (6.8%; 95% CI: 4.7-9.6). Conclusion: Among patients seeking hospital care in sub-Saharan Africa, multimorbidity remains poorly described despite high burdens of individual chronic diseases. Prospective public health studies of multimorbidity burden are needed to generate integrated and context-specific health system interventions that act to maximize patient survival and well-being.