On March 15, 2022, Belinda Archibong, assistant professor of economics, published a new paper in The Lancet, titled “Population health outcomes in Nigeria compared with other West African countries, 1998–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.” Archibong and her co-authors assert that population-level health and morality data are crucial for the development of effective, evidence-informed policies.
Since this information is scarce in Nigeria, the researchers took a comprehensive assessment of the burden of disease in Nigeria and compared it with other outcomes in West African countries. The researchers found that health outcomes in Nigeria remain poor, despite higher expenditure since 2001, suggesting that the health system should target unsafe water sources, poor sanitation, malnutrition, and exposure to air pollution in order to substantially increase population health.