About us
The Epidemiology in Action Research (EpiAction) Lab, based at the School of Health Systems and Public Health at the University of Pretoria (UP), is a life-course and translational epidemiology research group working to improve health outcomes across Africa.
Led by Dr. Jabulani Ncayiyana, the Lab connects cutting-edge research with real-world interventions, focusing especially on health during adolescence and early life—the critical foundations of lifelong well-being.
Transforming Adolescent and Lifelong Health in Africa
Each year, about 2.6 million young people die worldwide, with mortality rates nearly twice as high in Africa compared to other regions. Despite this burden, there is limited understanding of what affects youth health and how it impacts their future wellbeing.
The high double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases across Africa necessitates innovative approaches beyond studying diseases in isolation. Many health conditions originate in early life, with risk factors converging during adolescence.
We address these challenges through interdisciplinary research, community engagement, and capacity building, creating contextually adapted, co-designed interventions that can be implemented at scale.
Our vision is an Africa where all people achieve lifelong well-being and thrive. We achieve this by advancing epidemiological research to understand the relationships between behaviour, society, environment, and disease in early life, which informs the development of effective public health interventions across the lifespan.
Our Approach
Our approach to achieving our vision focuses on three key areas:
Life-Course and Translational Research
We study how exposures in early life—from birth through adolescence—shape health outcomes later in life. Our work generates the evidence needed to design targeted interventions that address the root causes of health challenges in African contexts.
Collaborative Intervention Design
We partner with communities and stakeholders to design culturally grounded and evidence-informed interventions. By embedding collaboration throughout the research process, we ensure our solutions are effective, acceptable, and sustainable.
Local Capacity Strengthening
We invest in the next generation of African public health leaders. Through mentorship, training programs, and collaborative research, we strengthen local capacity to tackle Africa’s evolving health challenges from within.
Our Research
Tracking Health Across the Life course
We collect and analyze longitudinal data to understand how early-life exposures shape long-term health, informing preventive strategies across the entire lifespan.
Creating Sustainable Solutions
We identify promising interventions, adapt them to local contexts, and co-create new approaches with communities. to ensure they are practical, relevant, and evidence-based.
Our Impact
Transforming Adolescent and Lifelong Health in Africa
As part of our mission to address life-course health challenges, we lead the ARISE-NUTRINT and DASH initiatives—a multi-country research collaboration focused on improving adolescent nutrition, physical activity, and health policy across Sub-Saharan Africa.
In response to a pressing lack of evidence and interventions for adolescent and youth health, ARISE-NUTRINT and DASH collaborate in seven countries to understand and reshape the environments influencing adolescent wellbeing. We are enhancing surveillance systems to better track dietary and physical activity risks; co-designing nutrition interventions with communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda; and evaluating national-level policies, including sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa.
This initiative uses rigorous methods such as longitudinal data collection, design thinking workshops, and randomized trials to develop scientifically grounded and locally relevant interventions. While centered on youth, the project exemplifies our broader commitment to improving health outcomes across the lifespan.
By working closely with implementation partners and communities, we ensure our research delivers tangible benefits—from influencing national policy to creating healthier futures at the household level.