UCT-led study highlights gaps in pain care across African hospitals

Two-thirds of adults admitted to hospitals across Africa experience pain and one in seven suffer severe pain, a landmark study led by the University of Cape Town (UCT) has found.

South Africa was one of the biggest contributors to the research, accounting for more than 10% of the 19,438 patients studied across 180 hospitals in 22 African countries.

The South African Medical Association (Sama) and the study’s lead researcher have weighed in on what it means for patients closer to home.

Dr Gillian Bedwell, a postdoctoral fellow at UCT’s African Pain Research Initiative (Apri) and the study’s lead researcher, said the study aimed to provide an overall picture of pain across African hospitals rather than compare countries, so no separate figure exists for South Africa alone.

Because South Africa and Nigeria contributed such large numbers of patients, the researchers checked whether the two countries were skewing the results.