Variations in occurrences of nutrition-related diseases in Sub-Saharan Africans in stages of transition: what of the future?

In many Sub-Saharan African populations, in particular urban dwellers, there have been marked rises in the prevalences of obesity in women, hypertension, diabetes, and cerebral vascular disease. Yet there have been only slight rises in coronary heart disease. To learn more of the roles of the various influencing factors in the puzzling situations described, some aspects of the past and present occurrences of these diseases are described and discussed, with comparisons being made with corresponding situations in African Americans, as well as in certain white populations. Despite increases in the knowledge of influencing factors, such fail to explain fully the epidemiologic situations described. As to the future, judging from the experiences of other populations, despite continuing indigence, within the next generation significant rises in coronary heart disease in certain African populations seem to be inevitable. However, in many of those populations, in particular those in the South, the extent of changes, apart from those linked with level of socioeconomic state, will be strongly affected by the rising epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.