south africa (sa) is experiencing a rapid epidemiologic transition as a consequence of political, economic and social changes. in this study we described, based on hospital data, the mortality patterns of non communicable diseases (ncd), communicable diseases (cd), the ncd/cd ratios, and the trends of deaths.we conducted a cross-sectional survey of all deaths occurring in several public hospita...

Abdel Omran’s 1971 theory of epidemiological transition is an attempt to account for the extraordinary advances in health care made in industrialized countries since the 18 century. According to Omran, all societies experience three "ages" in the process of modernization: the "age of pestilence and famine", during which mortality is high and fluctuating, with an average life expectancy under 30...

Introduction: During the last half century, all indices of mortality imply the prompt and continuous decrease of nationwide mortality. Alongside reduction of mortality, there happened a comprehensive form of transition of mortality causes, from epidemical and other communicable diseases such as mothers' (birth giving) mortalities and birth related ones, to other causes like chronic diseases r...

BACKGROUND The model of epidemiologic transitions has served as a guiding framework for understanding relationships between patterns of human health and disease and economic development for the past several decades. However, epidemiologic transition theory is infrequently employed in epidemiology. OBJECTIVE Moving beyond Omran's original formulation, we discuss critiques and modifications of ...

In 1971, Omran formulated the epidemiologic transition theory (1), which builds on the demographic transition theory but also includes the changing patterns in diseases and the causes of death. He recognizes that the epidemiologic transition of non-industrialized societies differs fundamentally from the epidemiologic transition in the developed (Western) world (2). Omran's non-Western transitio...