The high rates of urbanization amidst stagnating economies and poor governance have created a new face of abject poverty concentrated in overcrowded slum settlements in Africa’s major cities. Emerging evidence demonstrates that poor residents in African cities often experience worse health vulnerabilities than many other segments of national sub-populations, including rural residents. Analysis ...

ALTHOUGH SOCIAL GRADIENTS IN MORBIDITY AND MORtality fromscrofula, rickets,andscarlet feverwerenoticedinEnglandasearlyas1845,currentunderstandingof therelationshipbetweenpovertyandillhealth is still evolving. A detailed examination of the social determinants of health is the current focus of a World Health OrganizationCommission,andaglobalagendathataddressestheoverlappingvulnerabilitiesofpovert...

Access to health care services for the poor and indigent is hampered by current policies of health care financing in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews the issue as it is discussed in the international literature. No real strategies seem to exist for covering the health care of the indigent. Frequently, definitions of poverty and indigence are imprecise, the assessment of indigence is diffi...

Taking as point of departure the need for a strong public health care sector in developing countries the article firstly outlines how in sub-Saharan Africa enhanced scarcity has characterized the content and quality of health care in the public sector. This has eroded the trust among the public in the government as provider of health care and guardian of public health. Secondly, it describes ho...

De Allegri et al.1 rightly describe low enrolment as a principal problem related to the functioning of community health insurance (CHI) in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, they identify a set of important factors affecting the decision to enrol. Nonetheless, on reflection about the evidence established by this paper and related research, I would like to suggest some additional considerations. F...

OBJECTIVE We examined the independent associations between objectively measured free-living physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) and the metabolic syndrome in adults in rural and urban Cameroon. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS PAEE was measured in 552 rural and urban dwellers using combined heart rate and movement sensing over 7 continuous days. The metabolic syndrome was defined using the...

E n l’an 2000, huit Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD) ont été définis. Trois d’entre eux concernaient directement la santé (OMD 4, 5 et 6). Dix ans plus tard, force est de constater que ces OMD ne seront pas atteints en 2015 dans les pays d’Afrique subsaharienne. Cette situation est illustrée par des systèmes de santé primaires dans un état insuffisant, voire dégradés dans de ...

BACKGROUND Adolescent pregnancy has been persistently high in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this review is to identify factors influencing adolescent pregnancies in sub-Saharan Africa in order to design appropriate intervention program. METHODS A search in MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of science, and Google Scholar databases with the following keywords: determinants, factors, reasons, sociocul...

Veterinarians in sub-Saharan Africa work in resource-deficient environments. Decisions taken by veterinarians in this sub-region, on animal health, animal husbandry and public health issues, are therefore influenced by economic factors including macro-economic considerations related to the current structural adjustment programmes being implemented in the sub-region. In turn, decisions or advice...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate alternative strategies for improving the uptake of benefits of a community based health insurance scheme by its poorest members. DESIGN Prospective cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) community based health insurance scheme in rural India. Participants 713 claimants at baseline (2003) and 1440 claimants two years later ...