Submission ID 131121
| Issue/Objective | The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa has risen remarkably over time, reflecting a broader epidemiological transition. Between 1990 and 2023, the contribution of NCDs to total disease burden in Africa rose from about 19.5% to 38.2%. Similarly, the proportion of deaths attributable to NCDs increased from 24% in 2000 to 37% in 2019 and is projected to become the leading cause of death by 2030 in the region. Coincidentally, migration, which is increasingly recognized as a significant social determinant of NCDs, shaping health outcomes through complex behavioural, environmental, and structural pathways, increased from about 15% in 1960 to over 40% in 2020. Changes in lifestyle and psychosocial stressors associated with migration contribute to NCDs such as diabetes and hypertension. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between internal migration trajectories and diabetes and/or hypertension status among men and women in five African countries. |
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| Methodology/Approach | The study draws on cross-sectional data from the Demographic and Health Survey in five African countries-DR Congo, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, and Zambia-collected between 2022 and 2024. We fitted complementary log-log regression models to a sample of 82,828 women and 52,928 men. |
| Results | The findings show that among women migrants, rural-rural (OR=1.25, CI=1.15,1.37), rural-urban (OR=1.21, CI=1.08,1.35), and urban-urban (OR=1.14, CI=1.01,1.29) migration was associated with higher odds of reporting positive NCDs status compared to their lifetime rural-dwelling counterparts. Among men, only rural-urban migration was significantly associated with increased odds (OR=1.26, CI=1.06,1.51) of reporting NCDs positive status. Interaction analysis showed that compared with lifetime urban residents in DR Congo, urban-urban migration for both men and women in Zambia and Mozambique was associated with higher odds of being diagnosed with NCDs. Among both men and women, however, lifetime rural residence was associated with lower odds of reporting NCDs positive status in Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | The study highlights an association between migration trajectories and diabetes and/or hypertension positive status, underscoring the precarious NCD health situation of migrants in the five African countries. Urbanization in Africa, particularly driven by rural-urban migration, could exacerbate the chronic disease burden and the NCD epidemiological transition. |
| Presenters and Affiliations | Irenius Konkor University of Waterloo Warren Dodd University of Waterloo |
