One in seven hospitalized patients suffers from severe pain in Africa, according to a 22-country study

A study coordinated by the University of Cape Town (UCT) involving 19,438 patients hospitalized in 180 hospitals across 22 African countries establishes that 14.4% of them endure severe pain, rated at least 7 out of 10. The results were published in the scientific journal PAIN and presented on September 25, 2026, by the university, according to UCT News and allAfrica.

In total, 67.9% of those surveyed reported feeling pain at the time of the study. Among patients admitted for trauma, the proportion rises to 84.1%, with 20.3% experiencing severe pain. Surgical wards are more affected than medical wards (16.2% versus 11.1%), and intensive care units lead the way, with 19.3%.

Pain, a warning signal and mortality factor

The most consequential result concerns survival: according to the study, patients suffering from severe pain had a 27% higher risk of dying within seven days of the assessment. The authors remain cautious about the interpretation and call for determining whether pain is a warning sign, an aggravating factor, or both at the same time.

The researcher who led the work, Gillian Bedwell, a member of the UCT's African Pain Research Initiative (APRI), highlights the lack of documentation from which this survey starts: Africa, she says, has "historically had little large-scale data" on the pain of hospitalized patients. She advocates for the recognition and treatment of pain to become a basic element of quality care.

African research on African patients

The work was conducted with the African Perioperative Research Group and the UCT's Neuroscience Institute, and co-signed by researchers from numerous countries on the continent, from Libya to Nigeria, from Ghana to Tanzania, from Uganda to Ethiopia, and from Namibia to Tunisia. Funding was provided by the British National Institute for Health and Care Research, through its group dedicated to perioperative and critical care.

The issue is a right rarely formulated as such: the right not to suffer unnecessarily in the hospital. Behind the percentages lie supply shortages of analgesics, overwhelmed staff, absent assessment protocols, and, sometimes, opioid regulations so restrictive that they discourage prescription. The APRI and the African Perioperative Research Group are announcing programs to document pain assessment practices and remove these obstacles, hospital by hospital.