Adult Mortality in Africa

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a review of all-cause adult mortality estimates based on sibling survival data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and complement these with estimates from United Nations (UN) agencies. In some countries, adult health has drastically deteriorated since the 1980s, leading to an increasing heterogeneity in adult mortality levels. More hopeful are the first indications of a decline in adult mortality in some of the countries that are hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.