By Adeyinka Adeniran
Experts and stakeholders across various fields of learning have raised the alarm over a staggering statistical disparity showing that adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa are three times more likely than their male counterparts to experience clinical depression.
They warned that leaving this mental health crisis unchecked threatens educational attainment, family stability, and national development across the continent.
The leading experts who are currently in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital city converged at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan to kick off a landmark continental summit aimed at tackling adolescent depression through advanced mathematical modelling.
The event, which is the 1st Women-Derived Mathematical Models for Mental Health (WEALTH) and the 2nd Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) Conference is being attended by medical experts, researchers, academics, policymakers, statistician, clinicians, and international mental health experts.
The high-profile gathering, which brought together delegates from twenty-four sub-Saharan African countries, underscored an urgent national push to bridge critical data gaps in public healthcare and youth mental wellbeing.
Backed by the Gates Foundation, the pioneering WEALTH project is designed to cultivate a critical mass of female researchers and policymakers equipped to deploy mathematical, statistical, and economic modelling to combat clinical depression among adolescent girls and young women across the continent.
Representing Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, noted that mental health is a fundamental socioeconomic imperative, particularly given that nearly half of all mental health conditions begin before the age of 14.
According to her, “Adolescent girls and young women are particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges due to GBV, sexual exploitation, harmful social norms, early marriage, unintended pregnancy, menstrual health issues, academic pressures, poverty, and social media influence,”
She emphasized that the state government has integrated mental health units into primary healthcare structures and reactivated its Non-Communicable Diseases Technical Working Group to coordinate response systems.
The convener of the conference and Director of the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CCAMH), Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, stressed that the Gates Foundation-funded WEALTH project was specifically designed to bridge a critical evidence and care gap by training a cohort of African women researchers and policymakers to utilize mathematical modelling against depression.
Highlighting the inclusion of students and young people directly into the deliberations, Omigbodun assures they young learners that, “You are not here as an audience. You are central to our deliberations at this conference, and your presence in this room means the researchers here are accountable to you directly, not only to a dataset that happens to include your age group”.
Weighing in on the quantitative dimensions of the crisis, the Provost of the College of Medicine, Professor Temidayo Ogundiran, remarked that the high prevalence of depression among young women acts as an alarm bell eroding human potential in silence.
“We are using algorithms not to predict stock markets or maximize corporate profits, but to understand the social determinants of adolescent girls’ mental health in Nigeria, in Kenya, in South Africa, and across other nations,” Ogundiran noted.
Deepening the methodological discourse, Professor Tolulope Sajobi, Professor and Head of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and President-Elect of the Biostatistics Section of the Statistical Society of Canada, delivered a comprehensive plenary address outlining how methodologists serve as the “Guardians of the Galaxy” for evidence generation in transdisciplinary health research.
Sajobi emphasized that modern health research requires academic teams to embed themselves deeply together, bringing together health economists, mathematical modelers, and implementation science experts to act as scientific guardrails.
Outlining core competencies, Sajobi noted that methodological leaders must transcend basic number-crunching through active communication, innovative model adaptation, comprehensive project management, and active mentorship.
He illustrated these principles using impactful case studies, including the establishment of parsimonious mental health outcome measures where tools like the PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 are evaluated for sensitivity to change, longitudinal cohorts tracking children with chronic illnesses using machine learning and psychometrics, population-based survey meta-analyses, and a 14-year stroke clinical trial partnership that engineered a remote patient-centered tracking platform to eliminate mandatory in-person clinic visits.
In her keynote address, which was presented virtually, the immediate past President, Medical Women’s International Association, Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi called the attention of the transdisciplinary experts that, as leaders, advocates, and changemakers who are gathered at the conference, the global conversation centered on an urgent truth: mental health is profoundly gendered.
She explianed that, across the world, one billion people live with mental conditions, shadowed by the heavy weights of shame and stigma. Yet, the burden falls disproportionately on women, who are one and a half times more likely to experience depression than men.
She said, “Over ten percent of pregnant women and new mothers navigate these silent battles, while nearly one in three women face violence in their lifetime—a devastating reality that severely aggravates trauma, anxiety, PTSD, and suicide.
“With suicide standing as the third leading cause of death among young people aged fifteen to twenty-nine, and massive gaps in treatment access plaguing low-income countries, the crisis demands immediate attention.”
To address the anormaly, she noted that equity is not merely an ideal but the cornerstone of survival and healing.
“Women face compounded vulnerabilities driven by discrimination, violence, poverty, conflict, and humanitarian crises, all of which heighten their risk of psychological distress. Tragically, societal stigma discourages women from seeking help, compounded by a critical lack of investment in safeguarding their mental well-being.
“To transform this landscape, our approach must be firmly rooted in the five essential E’s: we must ensure our frameworks are equitable, driven by ethical considerations, enriched with high emotional intelligence, guided by evidence-informed practices, and designed to uplift the self-esteem of both the individual and the collective.
“True progress relies on transparent foundations, ethical engagement, and an unwavering commitment to bridging the deep divides in global mental health care”, she noted.
Echoing these quantitative and collaborative imperatives, Mrs. Chioma Nwosu-Fakorede, CEO of Olamma Cares Foundation and a lived experience expert, emphasized that quantitative research must align with human compassion, stating, “My lived experience has taught me that recovery is possible. It has taught me that behind every diagnosis, every research finding, and every policy discussion is a human being deserving of dignity, compassion, and hope”.
Highpoint of the opening ceremony which held at the Paul Hendrickse Hall of the College of Medicine, UCH Premises was the cutting of the conference cake and recognition of deserving individuals.
