Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract NACNDC/19JASH053 (Poster B20) | Published: 30 Nov 2025
Janet Maraka1,2,& Joseph Ssekitto1, Anthony Bamwine1, Paul George D’Arbela1,2,&
1St. Francis Hospital Nsambya, Kampala, Uganda, 2Uganda Martyrs University Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School, Kampala, Uganda
&Corresponding authors: Janet Maraka and Professor Paul George D’Arbela, Uganda Martyrs’ University, Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School, Kampala, Uganda.
Email: janetmaraka44@gmail.com and musokesenior@gmail.com
Received: 30 Aug 2025, Accepted: 20 Oct 2025, Published: 30 Nov 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Disease impact change, communicable, non-communicable, morbidity mortality, health care planning and budgeting
©Janet Maraka et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Janet Maraka et al., From communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases dominance: Insights from morbidity and mortality data. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc6):053. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO6-00053
Communicable diseases (CDs) have historically dominated morbidity and mortality (M&M) patterns in Uganda. However, over the years hospital-based studies suggest a shift from communicable toward non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Despite this trend, health care systems remain predominantly structured for infectious disease management. This study assembled two 2-year blocks of morbidity and mortality (M&M) data 15 years apart in the Department of Medicine, St. Francis Hospital Nsambya to quantify changes in disease patterns. which information might be useful in influencing health-system planning and budgeting.
A comparative review of M&M data was conducted over two 2-years block periods: 2008–2010 and 2022–2024 fifteen years apart, in the Department of Medicine, St. Francis Hospital Nsambya. The data was extracted, cleaned, and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and stratified by disease categories (CD vs NCD), age, and sex. A total of 9,075 admissions were included: 5,249 admissions from 2008–2010 and 3,826 from 2022–2024. Descriptive statistics were used to compare trends across the two periods.
Communicable disease admissions declined markedly. HIV admissions decreased from 24.3% to 6.4%, with similar reductions observed in malaria and tuberculosis. Conversely, non-communicable diseases increased significantly: hypertension rose from 7.5% to 24.4%, diabetes mellitus from 9.8% to 15.5%, chronic kidney disease from 0.6% to 9.7%, and stroke from 3.5% to 10.2%. GERD, gastrointestinal bleeding, congestive cardiac failure, and thromboembolism also increased. Comorbidities involving hypertension, diabetes, and renal disease became more common. These findings indicate a shift from CD-driven to NCD-dominant morbidity and mortality.
While the study is not community-based and may not reflect change in incidence and prevalence of disease patterns in the community, it demonstrates a clear change in morbidity and mortality weighting from communicable to non-communicable diseases from the stand point of admissions and the direction of health care costs in a major Ugandan tertiary hospital. This shift aligns with regional patterns highlighting the need for health-systems reorientation toward NCD prevention, screening, and chronic care while sustaining the gains in infectious disease control impact.
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