Conversations around health progress in Africa usually focus on lives saved. And rightly so. Across the continent, people are living longer than they did a generation ago. Advances in prevention, treatment and public health have reduced deaths from many major diseases and improved survival for millions. But there is another side to this success story that receives far less attention: quality of life.
As a physiotherapist and rehabilitation researcher, I am interested not only in whether people survive illness, but also in how they live afterwards. The latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2023 study, to which I contributed, suggest that while mortality is falling, the number of people living with disability and chronic health conditions that affect everyday functioning is rising.
