Oh, What a Surprise: Adults in Sudan Have Multiple Health Issues

Brace yourselves for a groundbreaking revelation: adults in Sudan, just like everywhere else, can have more than one health problem at the same time. This novel concept, known as multimorbidity, is apparently a “growing global challenge.” Who knew? And because we can’t just assume that people in Africa have the same health patterns as the rest of the world, a study was conducted to confirm this wild idea.

Researchers, armed with questionnaires, ventured into northern Sudan between March and May 2022 to ask 250 adults about their health woes. They found that, lo and behold, adults in Sudan can indeed suffer from multiple conditions simultaneously, including such rarities as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity (conditions never seen in the rest of the world, right?).

Here’s the kicker: a whopping 61.6% of these adults were dealing with not one, but two or more of these conditions. And guess what? Getting older and being female were linked to having more health issues. This is truly shocking information that no one has ever heard before.

The study concludes with a call for “additional extensive studies” because, obviously, we need more data to really hammer home the point that multimorbidity is a thing. In the meantime, let’s all pretend to be surprised that as people age, they tend to accumulate health conditions, and that women, yet again, get the short end of the health stick.

So, hats off to the researchers for uncovering the hidden epidemic of multimorbidity in Sudan. Now, if only we could figure out what to do about it… Oh, right, they suggest “improved future planning and establishing effective health systems.” Groundbreaking.