In Her Lifetime: Female Morbidity and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Abstract

Concerns about population growth in sub-Saharan Africa have led to a research emphasis on womens fertility to the neglect of other womens health issues. This report adopts a biomedical approach to female morbidity and mortality throughout the life span with emphasis on strategic points of vulnerability and the complex interplay of disease determinants manifestations and sequelae. The bulk of the report presents evidence regarding eight specific conditions: nutrition; obstetric and gynecologic health; nervous system disorders; mental health problems; selected chronic diseases; injury; occupational and environmental health; tropical infectious diseases; and sexually transmitted diseases including human immunodeficiency virus. For each of these conditions the profile at six different life stages (in utero infancy and early childhood childhood adolescence adulthood and menopause and post-menopause) is discussed. In addition recommendations are outlined for research activities in four categories: epidemiologic biomedical applied/operational and ethnographic. The report consistently calls attention to the effect of sex-specific differences on community and individual experiences of disease and the impact of life stage on health-seeking behaviors that remain unelucidated.