Life expectancy of people living in sub-Saharan Africa is rising, though it remains lower than other regions globally. Innovations are promised thanks to a new research programme that will develop an ‘Ageing Check-up’ run by community nurses and therapists for use in the region.
The programme, led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK, will analyse data from 5,030 older adults living in Zimbabwe, The Gambia, and South Africa, to understand how commonly people are ageing healthily – and unhealthily – and how this influences quality of life.
Led by Celia Gregson, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Bristol and The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-ZIM), the five-year programme ‘Healthy ageing in sub-Saharan Africa’ will develop an evidence-based clinical framework to assess and manage chronic disorders of ageing, such as walking, balance, nutrition, memory, mood, eyesight, and hearing.
The team will work with a range of stakeholders including healthcare experts and older people themselves to develop a health check-up for people over 65 years. The check-up will be trialled in Zimbabwe to assess the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and costs of implementing community-based health checks.
Towards the end of the research programme a set of tools will be developed to guide the person-centred assessment and management of older people, ready for scale-up across sub-Saharan Africa.
Known health problems in the region, including Zimbabwe, include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, back and joint pain, depression and anxiety, HIV, uncorrected vison and hearing impairments, malnutrition including obesity, and undiagnosed memory decline.
During the £2 million study, the Bristol-Zimbabwe collaborative research team will grow a highly skilled and experienced Global Health and Ageing Research team who will work within a newly launched Global Health and Ageing Research Unit at the University and The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-ZIM), to ensure there is a positive impact on older people’s health for many years to come.
Professor Gregson, the programme lead from the University of Bristol, said: “Thanks to advances in health and sanitation, around the world people are living longer than ever before, with the greatest changes happening in Africa. In these added years of life, older people understandably want health and wellbeing, which is ‘healthy ageing’.
“However, healthcare services are not currently set up to provide for rapidly ageing populations, meaning older people are more likely to be living with disability and dependence.
“We want to understand why some people age healthily and some ‘unhealthily’ in Zimbabwe, The Gambia, and South Africa, and then develop a ‘Ageing Check-up’, run by nurses and therapists in local communities, where older people can be assessed and offered practical management to maintain their health as they age.”
