Sex-related absolute inequalities in tuberculosis incidence in 47 countries in Africa
Mohammed, Aliu, Aboagye, Richard Gyan, Duodu, Precious Adade, Adnani, Qorinah Estiningtyas Sakilah, Wongnaah, Florence Gyembuzie, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, and Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku (2025) Sex-related absolute inequalities in tuberculosis incidence in 47 countries in Africa. BMC Medicine, 23 (1). 324.
|
PDF (Published Version)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (7MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious disease of public health concern in Africa; understanding the sex disparities in TB burden is crucial for advancing global health objectives in TB diagnosis and treatment. Methods: This study assessed the sex-related disparities in the incidence of TB in 47 countries in Africa. Data for the study was obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) repository, which is incorporated into the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT). We used the WHO HEAT software version 3.1 and Stata software version 17.0 for the analysis. We estimated the difference between the TB incidence in males and females as a measure of inequality. Inequality was measured using Difference (D), an absolute summary measure of inequality. Results: The study revealed varying degrees of disparities in TB incidence, which skewed towards men in all countries across Africa, encompassing countries with different income levels. Lesotho (D = − 512.07) recorded the highest difference in TB incidence, which skewed towards men. At the income level, the Central African Republic (D = − 257.77), Lesotho (D = − 512.07), and Namibia (D = − 288.12) recorded the highest absolute disparities in the low-income, lower middle-income, and upper middle-income countries, respectively. Meanwhile, Togo (D = − 19.68), Comoros (D = − 17.79), Mauritius (D = − 10.08), and Seychelles (D = − 19.83) recorded the least sex-related disparities in TB incidence in low-income, lower middle-income, upper middle-income, and high-income countries, respectively. Conclusions: Interventions aimed at minimising the burden of TB in Africa could be targeted at reducing men’s exposure to TB risk factors. Such interventions could reduce the incidence of TB among men in Africa and contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal three target 3.3, which seeks to end the global epidemics of TB by 2030.
| Item ID: | 87747 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1741-7015 |
| Keywords: | Africa, Inequalities, Sex, Tuberculosis |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Feb 2026 06:59 |
| FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4202 Epidemiology > 420207 Major global burdens of disease @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200404 Disease distribution and transmission (incl. surveillance and response) @ 100% |
| Downloads: |
Total: 1 Last 12 Months: 1 |
| More Statistics |
Actions (Repository Staff Only)
 |
Item Control Page |