Prevalence and correlates of self-reported chronic non-communicable diseases in Botswana: a cross-sectional study

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the prevalence of self-reported chronic non-communicable diseases and their correlates in Botswana. This is a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey.

This is a cross-sectional study of respondents aged 10-64 years using data from the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey IV conducted in 2013. Three self-reported non-communicable diseases, namely, hypertension, diabetes and asthma were used. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify their correlates.

Out of the 2153 participants, the prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes and asthma were 14.2%, 3.3% and 5.3%, respectively. The study found that among other factors, older populations are at a much higher risk of having more than one non-communicable disease. After controlling for other covariates, the ORs of self-reported non-communicable disease was highest among older respondents aged 50 years and over (AOR=12.01, p<0.001) followed by richer respondents (AOR=1.86, p≤0.025). The ORs were also higher among females (AOR=1.83, p<0.001) and urban village residents (AOR=1.41, p=0.038).

It is evident that chronic non-communicable diseases are likely to increase in the future due to the rise in the old age population resulting from fertility transition and improvement in life expectancy in Botswana. Therefore urgent and holistic intervention programmes are required to halt the problem. Failure to act now is likely to result in high morbidity and mortality.