The overlapping burden of the three leading causes of disability and death in sub-Saharan African children
Published December 6, 2022, in Nature Communications (opens in a new window)
Abstract
Despite substantial declines since 2000, lower respiratory infections (LRIs), diarrhoeal diseases, and malaria remain among the leading causes of nonfatal and fatal disease burden for children under 5 years of age (under 5), primarily in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The spatial burden of each of these diseases has been estimated subnationally across SSA, yet no prior analyses have examined the pattern of their combined burden. Here we synthesise subnational estimates of the burden of LRIs, diarrhoea, and malaria in children under-5 from 2000 to 2017 for 43 sub-Saharan countries. Some units faced a relatively equal burden from each of the three diseases, while others had one or two dominant sources of unit-level burden, with no consistent pattern geographically across the entire subcontinent. Using a subnational counterfactual analysis, we show that nearly 300 million DALYs could have been averted since 2000 by raising all units to their national average. Our findings are directly relevant for decision-makers in determining which and targeting where the most appropriate interventions are for increasing child survival.
Citation
Reiner RC, LBD Triple Burden Collaborators, Hay SI. The overlapping burden of the three leading causes of disability and death in sub-Saharan African children. Nature Communications. 6 December 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34240-6.
Authors
- Bobby Reiner,
- Simon Hay,
- Katie Welgan,
- Chris Troeger,
- Mathew Baumann,
- Brigette Blacker,
- Molly Miller-Petrie,
- Lucas Earl,
- Daniel Casey,
- Aubrey Cook,
- Farah Daoud,
- Nicole Weaver,
- Samath D. Dharmaratne,
- Laura Dwyer-Lindgren,
- Valery Feigin,
- Joseph Frostad,
- Kimberly Johnson,
- Alice Lazzar-Atwood,
- Kate LeGrand,
- Stephen Lim,
- Paulina Lindstedt,
- Laurie Marczak,
- Benjamin Mayala,
- Tomislav Mestrovic,
- Ali Mokdad,
- Jon Mosser,
- Christopher J.L. Murray,
- QuynhAnh Nguyen,
- David Pigott,
- Puja Rao,
- David Smith,
- Emma Spurlock