BHF360° | DECEMBER 2021
EME R GING T RE N D S IN H E A LT H C A R E
South Africa’s youth is getting more sick, according to AfroCentric’s latest numbers S of SA’s most diversified, black-owned health group, AfroCentric, takes a look at the conditions plaguing our young people, and what we can do about them.
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Being in the health industry, we started to ask ourselves what we could see from the vast amount of data we have on South Africans’ health, and particularly, youngsters’ health.
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Ahmed Banderker, CEO
outh African youth (individuals aged 18 to 34) make up a third of our people. With an estimated population of just under 60 million, we’re talking about 20 million lives. We are – by nature and by numbers – a “young country”. It stands to reason, then, that prioritising youth development is not only a social imperative, but an economic one for our country.
Over the past nine years, the category with
the largest increase in admission numbers is mental health admissions, which has increased by 71% since 2011.*
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Are South African youth becoming sicker or healthier? In short, no to the latter. Our data in fact was indicative of a disconcerting trend – youth health is on the decline, with almost every graph we have on hand showing increasing numbers associated with chronic illnesses. B O A R D O F H E A LT H C A R E F U N D E R S
Let us pause to consider the statistics: Chronic disease: Over the past 10 years, the proportion of young people with 1 or more chronic diseases has more than doubled, from 2.5% in 2011 to 5.1% in 2020. Asthma and allergies: Our youth are potentially more afflicted by asthma and allergy related conditions, which make up 49% of all youth chronic registrations in 2020. Since 2011, the prevalence of these 2 conditions increased by 87%: Mental health: Of the three conditions that showed the largest percentage increase in prevalence since 2011, two of these relate to mental health – bipolar mood disorder, which showed a 214% increase in prevalence among the youth, and depression, which saw a 130% increase in prevalence among young people. Over the past nine years, the category with the largest increase in admission numbers is mental health admissions, which has increased by 71% since 2011.* *Note: 2020 was excluded due to the drop in non-emergency elective admissions experienced across the industry as a result of Covid-19.
