Africa’s older population is increasing and is keep rising in the next three decades. The change in population dynamics is expected to contribute to an increase in multimorbidity (living with 2 or more long-term conditions) and disability levels, creating pressure on health and social care systems. This therefore necessitates interventions to facilitate healthy ageing and to cushion economies and health systems, from negative impacts of rapid and unhealthy ageing. To ensure cost-effectiveness and reduce resource waste, interventions should be informed by local and contextual evidence. This project aims to provide local and contextual epidemiological evidence to inform healthy ageing interventions, policies, and debates in Africa. An immediate use of the evidence from this project, specifically from Zimbabwe, will be informing intervention development in the KOSHESAI project.
Aims
The project will use already collected data (of over 5000 mid-aged and older adults) from The Gambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa to describe healthy and unhealthy ageing, associated factors, and impact on health-related quality of life. Among other analyses, the project will generate evidence on health ageing scales and scores, multimorbidity and disability, frailty, and audit implementation of the WHO integrated care for older people (ICOPE).
Timeline
Project started in 2024