Abstract
Epidemiological Change and Chronic Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa offers new and critical perspectives on the causes and consequences of recent epidemiological changes in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly on the increasing incidence of so-called ‘non-communicable’ and chronic conditions. Historians, social anthropologists, public health experts and social epidemiologists present important insights from a number of African perspectives and locations to present an incisive critique of ‘epidemiological transition’ theory and suggest alternative understandings of the epidemiological change on the continent. Arranged in three parts, ‘Temporalities: Beyond Transition’, ‘Numbers and Categories’ and ‘Local Biologies and Knowledge Systems’, the chapters cover a broad range of subjects and themes, including the trajectory of maternal mortality in East Africa, the African smoking epidemic, the history of sugar consumption in South Africa, causality between infectious and non-communicable diseases in Ghana and Belize, the complex relationships between adult hypertension and paediatric HIV in Botswana, and stories of cancer patients and their families as they pursue treatment and care in Kenya. In all, the volume provides insights drawn from historical perspectives and from the African social and clinical experience to offer new perspectives on the changing epidemiology of sub-Saharan Africa that go beyond theories of ‘transition’. It will be of value to students and researchers in Global Health, Medical Anthropology and Public Health, and to readers with an interest in African Studies.
Highlights
Given the shortage of published validation studies of the Rose Angina Questionnaire (RAQ) in Africa, we have to resort to examining the relationship between RAQ diagnoses of angina and variables with which angina should in theory be related in order to assess convergent construct validity
The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and RAQ are just two examples of chronic-disease-related survey instruments that are in use in African populations
Reviewing results from studies implementing these instruments in African samples reveals that, while these measures may be useful in detecting meaningful health differences, they do not necessarily perform across populations
Summary
Reproduced from ‘Self-administration of a questionnaire on chest pain and intermittent claudication’, by G. D.D. Reid, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Volume 31, Issue 1, 1977, with permission from BMJ
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