Self-reported disability in rural Malawi: prevalence, incidence, and relationship to chronic conditions.

Disability is a complex concept involving physical impairment, activity limitation, and participation restriction. The Washington Group developed a set of questions on six functional domains (seeing, hearing, walking, remembering, self-care, and communicating) to allow collection of comparable data on disability. We aimed to improve understanding of prevalence and correlates of disability in this low-income setting in Malawi.

Self-reported disability in relation to mortality in rural Malawi: a longitudinal study of over 16 000 adults.

Objectives: We investigated whether self-reported disability was associated with mortality in adults in rural Malawi.

Setting: Karonga Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS), Northern Malawi.

Participants: All adults aged 18 and over residing in the HDSS were eligible to participate.

Prevalence of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, and cascade of care in sub-Saharan Africa: a cross-sectional, population-based study in rural and urban Malawi.

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is in rapid demographic transition, and non-communicable diseases are increasingly important causes of morbidity and mortality. We investigated the burden of diabetes, overweight and obesity, hypertension, and multimorbidity, their treatment, and their associations with lifestyle and other factors in Malawi, a very poor country with a predominantly rural-but rapidly growing urban-population, to identify high-risk populations and inform appropriate interventions.

Methods: In this cross-sectional, population-based study, we enrolled all adults (≥18 years) residing in two defined geographical areas within Karonga District and Lilongwe city.

Hypertension and diabetes in Africa: design and implementation of a large population-based study of burden and risk factors in rural and urban Malawi.

Background: The emerging burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa threatens the gains made in health by the major international effort to combat infectious diseases. There are few data on distribution of risk factors and outcomes in the region to inform an effective public health response. A comprehensive research programme is being developed aimed at accurately documenting the burden and drivers of NCDs in urban and rural Malawi; to design and test intervention strategies.