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Antiretroviral therapy (and resulting increased viral suppression) linked to longer AND healthier lives for older adults in South Africa

HAALSI men and women

Researchers affiliated with the HAALSI study, including former Harvard Bell Fellows Collin Payne, PhD, and Lindsay Kobayashi, PhD, and faculty member Jennifer Manne-Goehler, PhD, are among the authors of a study published in The Lancet HIV that links increased viral suppression at the population level with not only increased life expectancy, but also with less disability, pointing to the value of ART to foster healthy aging. Learn more in this…

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In China, the “oldest-old” urban dwellers are experiencing less disability and, for some, longer life expectancy

Elderly Chinese woman

Collin F. Payne, PhD, a fellow in a recent cohort of our Bell Postdoctoral Fellows, is an author on a paper published in BMC Medicine that examines both life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy among those cohorts born 1919–1928 and 1909–1918 in China. The findings could be instrumental in helping shape policy and programs in this country, which is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. Photo: Rod…

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Measuring frailty—a key predictor of mortality and morbidity in higher income countries—in the now aging South African population

A team of researchers affiliated with HAALSI, a project focused on the aging population in South Africa, has published a study in BMC Geriatrics that finds frailty to be associated with worse health and well being, and earlier death in an aging, rural South African population.

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Depression and anxiety levels increase with age and vary by gender in aging South African population

Harvard Bell Fellow Collin Payne, PhD, is author on a paper in Demography that takes a rare look at the mental health status of aging adults in Malawi, South Africa, a low-income setting with a high incidence of HIV. Findings suggest that declining levels of physical health with age may be a key driver of the rise in depression and anxiety.

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Working paper: Up, Down & Reciprocal: The Dynamics of Intergenerational Transfers, Family Structure & Health in a Low-Income Context

Harvard Bell Fellow Collin Payne is lead author on a working paper that explores the complex nature of how resources are shared and redistributed within a family in the absence of a public pension system in a rural sub-Saharan African setting.

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How do functional abilities of aging population in South Africa compare to those in other LMICs?

Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center have authored a paper based on research from the Health and Aging in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) study that finds that older South African men had 30% higher odds than women of being limited when it came to performing activities of daily living (ADLs), and that this cohort in South Africa (men and women) did not…

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How does disability impact the aging population of Latin America and Caribbean?

About the same as it impacts the older adults of the United States, according to a study published in The Journals of Gerontology by Harvard Bell Fellow Collin Payne, PhD. The findings suggest that despite having been exposed to poor public health conditions for many years, the older adult population of Latin America and the Caribbean, countries experiencing quickly shifting age compositions, have a comparable level of functional health as…

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