Surgical Need Among The Ageing Population Of Uganda

Background: Uganda's ageing population (age 50 years and older) will nearly double from 2015 to 2050. HIV/AIDS, diabetes, stroke among other disease processes have been studied in the elderly population. However, the burden of disease from surgically-treatable conditions is unknown.Objectives: To determine the proportion of adults above 50 years with unmet surgical need and deaths attributable to probable surgically-treatable conditions.Methods: A cluster randomized sample representing the national population of Uganda was enumerated. The previously validated Surgeons Overseas assessment of surgical need instrument, a head-to-toe verbal interview, was used to determine any surgically-treatable conditions in two randomly-selected living household members. Deaths were detailed by heads of households. Weighted metrics are calculated taking sampling design into consideration and Taylor series linearization was used for sampling error estimation.Results: The study enumerated 425 individuals above age 50 years. The prevalence proportion of unmet surgical need was 27.8% (95% CI, 22.1-34.3). This extrapolates to 694,722 (95% CI, 552,279-857,157) individuals living with one or more surgically treatable conditions. The North sub-region was observed to have the highest prevalence proportion. Nearly two out of five household deaths (37.9%) were attributed to probable surgically treatable causes.Conclusion: There is disproportionately high need for surgical care among the ageing population of Uganda with approximately 700,000 consultations needed.