HAALSI – Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

February 18, 2024February 23, 2024

Three “Conversations” that tell the story of health and aging in rural South Africa

HAALSA letters with South African images behind them

Physicians, professors and research scientists affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (HAALSA)—the ten-year (and counting) project that has been following a cohort that started as 5,000 men and women aged 40 and over—have penned three pieces in The Conversation that delve into unique aspects of this burgeoning population: Pioneering researchers Stephen Tollman and Kathleen Kahn from the University of the Witwatersrand reflect back on…

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January 19, 2024

Does the link between dementia and increased risk of COVID-19 that has been observed in wealthier countries exist in LMICs?

Researchers affiliated with HAALSI, a longitudinal study on health and aging in South Africa, have published a novel study that investigates the link between cohort-derived dementia (using a predictive model for dementia) and confirmed COVID-19 infection in a low- and middle-income, rural, community setting. Findings point to the risk of COVID-19 being doubled for those who received a consensus-based dementia diagnosis.

June 23, 2023July 18, 2023

Study evaluating telomeres finds aging- and health-related biomarkers in low-income country to be similar to those found in high-income countries

Scientists affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study in South Africa (HAALSI) have found that telomere length is associated with health and aging biomarkers (e.g., age, mortality, blood pressure) in much the same way that they are associated with these biomarkers in more frequently studied high-income countries.

June 6, 2023July 18, 2023

Decade-long research project that explores aging in South Africa receives NIH/NIA funding for new waves & national expansion, with special focus on cognitive health

Researchers from The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Cape Town have been awarded 27 million dollars from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to further the collaborative program project Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study in South Africa (HAALSI). This is the largest grant to be administered through…

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April 20, 2023July 18, 2023

Diagnosing dementia in rural South Africa using online consensus; cash transfers at earlier age in South Africa to support cognitive health later on; paving the way with promise for genomic studies on cognition in Africa

Three studies by HAALSI researchers based on a rapidly aging population in rural South Africa are contributing to the much-needed scientific literature on global cognitive aging. A study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring found that a multidisciplinary, web-based consensus conference approach for diagnosing cognitive impairment and dementia in rural South Africa was feasible, and identified the key factors responsible for diagnostic variability among raters. In…

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March 22, 2023July 18, 2023

HAALSI study finds improvement in hypertension control in aging South African population

Researchers affiliated with the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) project have published a study on an aging population in rural South Africa in which more than half suffer from hypertension. Findings reveal that there have been improvements in addressing the condition in every phase of the treatment “cascade” (i.e., awareness, treatment and control).

November 21, 2022July 18, 2023

HAALSI study evaluates less expensive and easier to implement method to assess salt consumption at the population level in rural South Africa

South Africa has introduced regulations to reduce sodium in processed foods. Researchers affiliated with the HAALSI study have found that spot urine samples, a less expensive (and less complicated) method of assessing salt consumption, are a viable alternative to the standard 24-h urine collection method for evaluating the population median 24hrUNa excretion. The findings, published in the Journal of Hypertension, “could play an important role for governments and public health…

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September 28, 2022February 27, 2024

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

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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March 15, 2022July 18, 2023

Study of aging population in South Africa finds that HIV viral suppression through ART is leveling the field of healthy longevity

Findings by HAALSI researchers published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, a special issue of conference abstracts, point to similar levels of increased lifespan and “healthspan” among those HIV-positive individuals who achieved viral suppression through ART as observed among HIV-negative individuals.