Allain, TJ;
Aston, S;
Mapurisa, G;
Ganiza, TN;
Banda, NP;
Sakala, S;
Gonani, A;
... Peterson, I; + view all
(2017)
Age Related Patterns of Disease and Mortality in Hospitalised Adults in Malawi.
PLOS ONE
, 12
(1)
e0168368.
10.1371/journal.pone.0168368.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is widely recognised as the next major challenge to global health. However, in many LMICs, infectious diseases are still prevalent resulting in a “double burden” of disease. With increased life expectancy and longevity with HIV, older adults may particularly be at risk of this double burden. Here we describe the relative contributions of infections and NCDs to hospital admissions and mortality, according to age, in Malawi’s largest hospital. METHODS: Primary diagnosis on discharge/death, mortality rates, and HIV status were recorded prospectively on consecutive adult medical in-patients over 2 years using an electronic medical records system. Diagnoses were classified as infections or NCDs and analysed according to age and gender. FINDINGS: 10,191 records were analysed. Overall, infectious diseases, particularly those associated with HIV, were the leading cause of admission. However, in adults ≥55 years, NCDs were the commonest diagnoses. In adults <55 years 71% of deaths were due to infections whereas in adults ≥55 years 56% of deaths were due to NCDs. INTERPRETATION: Infectious diseases are still the leading cause of adult admission to a central hospital in Malawi but in adults aged ≥55 years NCDs are the most frequent diagnoses. HIV was an underlying factor in the majority of adults with infections and was also present in 53% of those with NCDs. These findings highlight the need for further health sector shifts to address the double burden of infectious and NCDs, particularly in the ageing population.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Age Related Patterns of Disease and Mortality in Hospitalised Adults in Malawi |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0168368 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168368 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2017 Allain et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Infection and Immunity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1538751 |
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