Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 3.0

Hypertension-the Major Cause of Morbidity, Hospitalisation and Mortality among Non-communicable Diseases in the Gambia

Semeeh Akinwale Omoleke, Sanna Sambou, Ismael Abubakar, Adewale Luqman Oyeyemi

International Journal of TROPICAL DISEASE & Health · pp. 661–671 · Published 2 Apr 2014

10.9734/IJTDH/2014/9307

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed at investigating the major cause of morbidity, hospitalisation and mortality among Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) in The Gambia, in an effort to raise awareness on the alarming trend and thus stimulating appropriate responses from stakeholders. Method: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse a nation-wide routine hospital-based data on NCDs in The Gambia. Data were also presented in tables showing the trend of morbidity (in and out-patient case), hospitalisation and mortality between 2008 and 2011. Result: Hypertension as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases constitutes more than half (55%) of all hospital admissions due to NCDs while cardiovascular diseases as a whole constitute well over 60% of all hospital admissions from NCDs. Of all NCDs studied, morbidity due to hypertension constitutes 80%, nearly responsible for all morbidities due to cardiovascular diseases for the years considered. Seventy percent (70%) of all deaths due to NCDs were caused by cardiovascular diseases, and hypertension was an important factor for NCDs related mortality (47.9% in 2008 to 55.8% in 2011;p-value=0.13). There were increments in morbidity and mortality due to hypertension and cardiovascular diseases between 2008 and 2011. However, there was reduction in hospitalisation due to cardiovascular diseases, but not the case with hypertension (incremental change). The differences in morbidity and hospitalisation were statistically significant for cardiovascular diseases (p<0.0001 and p=0.034 respectively) while only increment in morbidity due to hypertension was statistically significant (p<0.0001). Conclusion: This study shows that hypertension as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease is the greatest cause of morbidity, hospitalisation and mortality among NCDs in The Gambia. Hence, a holistic approach tailored towards preventing the acquisition/onset of the modifiable risk factors (of hypertension and CVD) should be instituted as well as programmes capable of preventing target organ damage among the population already affected.

Hypertension cardiovascular diseases NCDs morbidity hospitalization mortality the Gambia public health

References (20)

  1. 1 A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectives [DOI]
  2. 2 World Health Statistics [DOI]
  3. 3 The burden and costs of chronic diseases in low-income and middle-income countries [DOI]
  4. 4 The emerging epidemic of obesity in developing countries [DOI]
  5. 5 Emerging Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease in Developing Countries [DOI]
  6. 6 Worldwide prevalence of hypertension [DOI]
  7. 7 A LIFE COURSE APPROACH TO CHRONIC DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY [DOI]
  8. 8 Non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: what we know now [DOI]
  9. 9 The Nutrition Transition: An Overview of World Patterns of Change [DOI]
  10. 10 The emergence of cardiovascular disease during urbanisation of Africans [DOI]
  11. 11 Epidemic of hypertension in Ghana: a systematic review [DOI]
  12. 12 Ischaemic heart disease in Africa [DOI]
  13. 13 Nationwide prevalence study of hypertension and related non‐communicable diseases in The Gambia [DOI]
  14. 14 Establishing and sustaining research partnerships in Africa: a case study of the UK-Africa Academic Partnership on Chronic Disease [DOI]
  15. 15 Chronic Non-Communicable Disease as a New Epidemic in Africa: Focus on The Gambia [DOI]
  16. 16 Losing the battle of the bulge: causes and consequences of increasing obesity [DOI]
  17. 17 Some emerging issues in medical admission pattern in the tropics [DOI]
  18. 18 Changing causes of death in the West African town of Banjul, 1942-97.
  19. 19 Clinical profile of hypertension at a University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria [DOI]
  20. 20 Is Systemic Hypertension a Problem in Ghana? [DOI]

Cited by 2

An efficient analysis of predicting cholesterol level using multilayer perceptron over inception V3 to improve accuracy

V. Lokesh Venkatakrishna, S. Padmakala · AIP Conference Proceedings · 2025

Showing 1 of 2 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

52

Page views

0

PDF downloads

13

Outbound clicks

2

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.