Bio Profile
Dr Jonathan Abel Abuga is a Kenyan public health scholar with more than a decade of experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, and child health. He holds a PhD in Public Health from the University of Amsterdam, a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Kenyatta University, First Class Honours. His doctoral research, funded by the DELTAS Africa Initiative, examined childhood neurological impairments in rural Kenya using advanced epidemiological and statistical methods.
His 2019 cohort study in The Lancet Global Health reported that children aged 6 to 9 years with neurological impairments in rural Kenya had a markedly higher risk of premature mortality, with developmental delay and malnutrition identified as key predictors. In 2022, a study published in PLOS Global Public Health quantified the burden of neurological impairments in older children using disability adjusted life years, showing that epilepsy contributed the largest share of the total burden and highlighting gender disparities in years of life lost.
Beyond published research, Dr Abuga supported the establishment of the Public Health Department at Kisii University. His expertise includes epidemiological study design, longitudinal cohort analysis, and biostatistical approaches for estimating disease burden and assessing health inequalities.