Research is what turns a suspicion into a policy. Without it there is no case to put to a ministry, no way to size an intervention and no way to know afterwards whether it worked.
A growing body of work has been published on non-communicable disease in Sierra Leone, or has drawn on data collected here. It is scattered across journals, preprint servers and ministry websites. We have gathered it in one place and grouped it by condition, so that a researcher, a journalist or a programme officer can find what already exists before commissioning something new.
No publications match that search.
Maps why cardiovascular care keeps falling through the gaps. Investment in HIV, TB and malaria built strong vertical systems that NCDs cannot use, and the best staff are drawn into better-paid donor roles.
Blood pressure readings from 1,793 outpatients across four facilities found hypertension in 36.8%, rising sharply with age. Most had come in for something else entirely.
The first country-level pooled estimate: 27.6% of adults aged 15 and over live with hypertension. Of those, 37% know it, 13% are on treatment and 30% are controlled.
A community screening study in Western Area Urban that looked past risk factors to early organ damage, catching disease before symptoms bring anyone to a clinic.
Applied the WHO and ISH risk calculator to 1,892 adults in Bo. Around half needed hypertension treatment and one in eight of those was receiving it. Facility readiness for cardiovascular care scored 16.8% against 41% for HIV.
Bockarie and colleagues examined what people in Bo actually eat and how much they move, and which social groups carry the highest behavioural risk.
Interviews with patients and community leaders on how cardiovascular risk is understood locally. Explains why clinical messages often fail to land.
Among older adults, 49.6% had hypertension and 77.1% carried at least one cardiovascular risk factor. The care cascade drops away at every step.
In Sierra Leone's largest informal settlement, 45.7% of adults aged 35 and over had hypertension. Physical inactivity reached 81.5%, and 99% did not eat enough fruit or vegetables.
Diabetes was found in 6.2% of those tested, and 25% of patients aged 60 and over. Age-standardised to the national population the figure is 7.0%.
Urban prevalence of 2.4% and none detected in the rural villages surveyed. Read alongside the Bo study above, this shows how fast the burden has moved in a generation.
Prevalence rose across two decades and the gap between women and men widened with it. The authors argue the registry itself is the bottleneck.
A direct comparison with Rwanda's national HPV vaccination and screening programme, and what closing that distance would take.
Thirty-three years of modelled prevalence, deaths and disability-adjusted life years. Notes that no national newborn screening programme was in place as of 2024.
Of 273 severely anaemic children admitted, only a quarter were tested for sickle cell at all, and a third of those tested positive.
Follows people living with diabetes, hypertension and post-stroke disability over twelve weeks. Shows how poverty and gender inequity shape what care a person can actually reach.
The first published account of running a longitudinal NCD service in Sierra Leone, staffed by community health officers and nurses under clinician mentorship.
Workable, the authors conclude, but only if training and supervision become routine rather than project-funded.
The country's first national NCD policy, candid that NCDs went unmentioned in the health policy then in force.
The costed national plan, set against the global target of a 25% relative reduction in premature mortality from the four main NCDs.
The first quality-adjusted life year estimates after stroke anywhere in the country, giving health economists a number to work with.
The design and population of the country's first prospective stroke register, covering both principal adult tertiary hospitals in Freetown.
The first large prospective account of what happens to stroke patients in this country over the year after admission, and which factors predict death and disability.
The opening report from SISLE on who has strokes in Freetown, what type, what care they receive and what happens in hospital.