Gynaecologist Reveals Why Women in Nigeria Have low life Expectancy
A Gynaecologist at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano State, Dr. Labaran Aliyu, has said that until the government addresses poverty and illiteracy, low life expectancy of women in Nigeria will remain constant.
Dr. Aliyu says though there are many reasons for the low life expectancy of women in the country, the most important two are illiteracy and poverty.
The Obstetrician identified poverty and illiteracy as the root causes of low life expectancy in women.
According to the 2020 World Population Data Sheet, the life expectancy of females in the country is 56 years while that of males is 54 even as the national figure was put at 55 years in a population of over 200m people.
The maternal health expert explained, “There are many reasons for the low life expectancy of our women, but the most important two are illiteracy and poverty. Whatever reason you want to look at, you will ultimately come back to these two. So these are the root causes.
“In a poor family for example, if a woman is pregnant and develops complications and there are no resources to access healthcare, what will be the result? She will die from the complications.
“Although, sometimes, it is not about not having enough resources to access healthcare, but because of Illiteracy, many don’t know what to do when they are sick or what not to do to get better.”
According to the gynaecologist, looking at Illiteracy in the context of maternal health, it is important women know what they need to eat to be healthy.
“A lot of cases that we see in the hospitals and even in the communities are evidence of Illiteracy. For instance, if a woman is sick in the family and the sickness has a diagnosis, you can say this is the cause of that sickness. But because of illiteracy, it will be attributed to some other trivial issues based on the belief in the community.
“She will stop seeking care from the health providers and the sickness will worsen, ultimately she will die of the disease”, he said.
While identifying the poverty rate in the country as too high, Aliyu maintained that the issues are not properly addressed, a lot of women will continue to die from preventable causes and low life expectancy will remain.
