Abstract

Background: Due to change in the causes of death, life expectancy in Africa has dramatically increased since 2000.
Objective: This paper attempts to provide a comparison of the trends of causes of death among elderly people in Africa.
Materials and Methods: This population-based cross-sectional study, which a dataset was created by compiling from the World Health Organization assessment of deaths by cause for the years 2000–2015.
Results: Descriptive statistics, this study indicated an increase of death for both men and women. There is an increase in mean age for both men and women from 2000 to 2015. The mortality gap is large between elderly women aged 70 above. From 2000 to 2015, the mortality has increased for most age group, and most clearly for aged 70+. Moreover, the increased has been more pronounced for elderly women than elderly men. African elderly women aged 70+ have (odds ratio = 0.89; P < 0.001) higher mortality rate than men. Higher levels association was found for reports of tuberculosis (TB) and ischemic heart disease among elderly men, while lower respiratory disease, diabetic, stroke, and fall were only associated to the elderly men.Conclusion: Communicable diseases, particularly TB, are the leading causes of elderly mortality in Africa. There is the need to give care and introduce programs for the elderly to reduce mortality of both communicable and non-communicable disease.