| 1. |
- Payne, Collin F., et al.
(author)
-
Prevalence and correlates of frailty in an older rural African population : findings from the HAALSI cohort study
- 2017
-
In: BMC Geriatrics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2318. ; 17
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Frailty is a key predictor of death and dependency, yet little is known about frailty in sub-Saharan Africa despite rapid population ageing. We describe the prevalence and correlates of phenotypic frailty using data from the Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies of an INDEPTH Community cohort.Methods: We analysed data from rural South Africans aged 40 and over. We used low grip strength, slow gait speed, low body mass index, and combinations of self-reported exhaustion, decline in health, low physical activity and high self-reported sedentariness to derive nine variants of a phenotypic frailty score. Each frailty category was compared with self-reported health, subjective wellbeing, impairment in activities of daily living and the presence of multimorbidity. Cox regression analyses were used to compare subsequent all-cause mortality for non-frail (score 0), pre-frail (score 1–2) and frail participants (score 3+).Results: Five thousand fifty nine individuals (mean age 61.7 years, 2714 female) were included in the analyses. The nine frailty score variants yielded a range of frailty prevalences (5.4% to 13.2%). For all variants, rates were higher in women than in men, and rose steeply with age. Frailty was associated with worse subjective wellbeing, and worse self-reported health. Both prefrailty and frailty were associated with a higher risk of death during a mean 17 month follow up for all score variants (hazard ratios 1.29 to 2.41 for pre-frail vs non-frail; hazard ratios 2.65 to 8.91 for frail vs non-frail).Conclusions: Phenotypic frailty could be measured in this older South African population, and was associated with worse health, wellbeing and earlier death.
|
|
| 2. |
- Gaziano, Thomas A., et al.
(author)
-
Cardiometabolic risk in a population of older adults with multiple co-morbidities in rural south africa : the HAALSI (Health and Aging in Africa: longitudinal studies of INDEPTH communities) study
- 2017
-
In: BMC Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2458. ; 17
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: A consequence of the widespread uptake of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is that the older South African population will experience an increase in life expectancy, increasing their risk for cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), and its risk factors. The long-term interactions between HIV infection, treatment, and CMD remain to be elucidated in the African population. The HAALSI cohort was established to investigate the impact of these interactions on CMD morbidity and mortality among middle-aged and older adults. Methods: We recruited randomly selected adults aged 40 or older residing in the rural Agincourt sub-district in Mpumalanga Province. In-person interviews were conducted to collect baseline household and socioeconomic data, self-reported health, anthropometric measures, blood pressure, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), HbA1c, HIV-status, and point-of-care glucose and lipid levels. Results: Five thousand fifty nine persons (46.4% male) were enrolled with a mean age of 61.7 +/- 13.06 years. Waist-to- hip ratio was high for men and women (0.92 +/- 0.08 vs. 0.89 +/- 0.08), with 70% of women and 44% of men being overweight or obese. Blood pressure was similar for men and women with a combined hypertension prevalence of 58.4% and statistically significant increases were observed with increasing age. High total cholesterol prevalence in women was twice that observed for men (8.5 vs. 4.1%). The prevalence of self-reported CMD conditions was higher among women, except for myocardial infarction, and women had a statistically significantly higher prevalence of angina (10.82 vs. 6.97%) using Rose Criteria. The HIV- persons were significantly more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, or be overweight or obese than HIV+ persons. Approximately 56% of the cohort had at least 2 measured or self-reported clinical co-morbidities, with HIV+ persons having a consistently lower prevalence of co-morbidities compared to those without HIV. Absolute 10-year risk cardiovascular risk scores ranged from 7.7-9.7% for women and from 12.5-15.3% for men, depending on the risk score equations used. Conclusions: This cohort has high CMD risk based on both traditional risk factors and novel markers like hsCRP. Longitudinal follow-up of the cohort will allow us to determine the long-term impact of increased lifespan in a population with both high HIV infection and CMD risk.
|
|
| 3. |
- Geldsetzer, Pascal, et al.
(author)
-
Depressive Symptoms and Their Relation to Age and Chronic Diseases Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Rural South Africa
- 2019
-
In: The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC. - 1079-5006 .- 1758-535X. ; 74:6, s. 957-963
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Understanding how depression is associated with chronic conditions and sociodemographic characteristics can inform the design and effective targeting of depression screening and care interventions. In this study, we present some of the first evidence from sub-Saharan Africa on the association between depressive symptoms and a range of chronic conditions (diabetes, HIV, hypertension, and obesity) as well as sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to a population-based simple random sample of 5,059 adults aged 40 years and older in Agincourt, South Africa. Depressive symptoms were measured using a modified version of the eight-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression screening tool. Diabetes was assessed using a capillary blood glucose measurement and HIV using a dried blood spot. Results: 17.0% (95% confidence interval: 15.9%-18.1%) of participants had at least three depressive symptoms. None of the chronic conditions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in multivariable regressions. Older age was the strongest correlate of depressive symptoms with those aged 80 years and older having on average 0.63 (95% confidence interval: 0.40-0.86; p<.001) more depressive symptoms than those aged 40-49 years. Household wealth quintile and education were not significant correlates. Conclusions: This study provides some evidence that the positive associations of depression with diabetes, HIV, hypertension, and obesity that are commonly reported in high-income settings might not exist in rural South Africa. Our finding that increasing age is strongly associated with depressive symptoms suggests that there is a particularly high need for depression screening and treatment among the elderly adults in rural South Africa.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Kobayashi, Lindsay C., et al.
(author)
-
Childhood deprivation and later-life cognitive function in a population-based study of older rural South Africans
- 2017
-
In: Social Science and Medicine. - : Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 190, s. 20-28
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rationale: Little research has evaluated the life course drivers of cognitive aging in South Africa.Objectives: We investigated the relationships of self-rated childhood health and father's occupation during childhood with later-life cognitive function score and whether educational attainment mediated these relationships among older South Africans living in a former region of Apartheid-era racial segregation.Methods: Data were from baseline assessments of "Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community" (HAALSI), a population-based study of 5059 men and women aged >= 40 years in 2015 in rural Agincourt sub-district, South Africa. Childhood health, father's occupation during childhood, and years of education were self-reported in study interviews. Cognitive measures assessed time orientation, numeracy, and word recall, which were included in a z-standardized latent cognitive function score variable. Linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, and country of birth were used to estimate the total and direct effects of each childhood risk factor, and the indirect effects mediated by years of education.Results: Poor childhood health predicted lower cognitive scores (total effect = -0.28; 95% CI = -035, -0.21, versus good); this effect was not mediated by educational attainment. Having a father in a professional job during childhood, while rare (3% of sample), predicted better cognitive scores (total effect = 0.25; 95% CI = 0.10, 0.40, versus unskilled manual labor, 29% of sample). Half of this effect was mediated by educational attainment. Education was linearly associated with later-life cognitive function score (0.09; 95% CI = 0.09, 0.10 per year achieved).Conclusion: In this post-Apartheid, rural South African context, older adults with poor self-reported childhood health or whose father worked in unskilled manual labor had relatively poor cognitive outcomes. Educational attainment strongly predicted cognitive outcomes, and appeared to be, in part, a mechanism of social stratification in later-life cognitive health in this context.
|
|
| 6. |
- Rosenberg, Molly, et al.
(author)
-
The relationships between cognitive function, literacy and HIV status knowledge among older adults in rural South Africa
- 2020
-
In: Journal of the International AIDS Society. - : Wiley. - 1758-2652. ; 23:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Introduction Although HIV prevalence is exceptionally high in South Africa, HIV testing rates remain below targeted guidelines. Older adults living with HIV are substantially more likely to remain undiagnosed than younger people. Cognitive function and literacy could play key roles in HIV status knowledge due to the decision-making processes required around weighing the costs and benefits of testing, navigating testing logistics and processing results. We aimed to assess the independent relationships among each of cognitive function, literacy and education with HIV status knowledge in a population-based sample of older adults living in a rural South African community with high HIV prevalence. Methods We analyzed data from a population-based study of 5059 men and women aged 40 years and older in rural South Africa (Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH community (HAALSI)). HAALSI surveys, conducted between 2014 and 2015, queried self-reported literacy, educational attainment and HIV status knowledge. Laboratory tests were conducted to assess true HIV sero-status. Cognitive function was assessed with a battery of cognitive tests measuring time orientation, immediate and delayed recall, and numeracy and coded using confirmatory factor analysis as a z-standardized latent variable. We estimated the relationship between the outcome of HIV status knowledge and each of three exposures: (1) latent cognitive z-score, (2) literacy and (3) education, using confounder-adjusted modified Poisson regression models in the study population overall and stratified by HIV sero-status. Results We found that HIV status knowledge was higher among those with higher cognitive z-scores (adjusted Prevalence Ratio (aPR) (95% CI): 1.18 (1.14, 1.21) per standard deviation unit), and among literate participants (aPR (95% CI): 1.24 (1.16, 1.32) vs. non-literate participants). Taken together, the associations with literacy and cognitive function completely attenuated the otherwise positive association between educational attainment and HIV status knowledge. The magnitudes of effect were generally similar among laboratory-confirmed HIV-negative and HIV-positive participants. Conclusions Campaigns that target older adults in rural South Africa with HIV testing messages should carefully consider the cognitive and literacy levels of the intended audience. Innovations to ease the cognitive load associated with HIV testing could prove fruitful to increase HIV status knowledge.
|
|
| 7. |
- Wade, Alisha N, et al.
(author)
-
Multimorbidity and mortality in an older, rural black South African population cohort with high prevalence of HIV findings from the HAALSI Study
- 2021
-
In: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2044-6055. ; 11:9
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: Multimorbidity is associated with mortality in high-income countries. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between multimorbidity (≥2 of the following chronic medical conditions: hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, anaemia, HIV, angina, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependence) and all-cause mortality in an older, rural black South African population. We further investigated the relationship between HIV multimorbidity (HIV as part of the multimorbidity cluster) and mortality, while testing for the effect of frailty in all models.Design: Population cohort study.Setting: Agincourt subdistrict of Mpumalanga province, South Africa.Participants: 4455 individuals (54.7% female), aged ≥40 years (median age 61 years, IQR 52-71) and resident in the study area.Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was time to death and the secondary outcome measure was likelihood of death within 2 years of the initial study visit. Mortality was determined during annual population surveillance updates.Results: 3157 individuals (70.9%) had multimorbidity; 29% of these had HIV. In models adjusted for age and sociodemographic factors, multimorbidity was associated with greater risk of death (women: HR 1.72; 95% CI: 1.18 to 2.50; men: HR 1.46; 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.95) and greater odds of dying within 2 years (women: OR 2.34; 95% CI: 1.32 to 4.16; men: OR 1.51; 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.24). HIV multimorbidity was associated with increased risk of death compared with non-HIV multimorbidity in men (HR 1.93; 95% CI: 1.05 to 3.54), but was not statistically significant in women (HR 1.85; 95% CI: 0.85 to 4.04); when detectable, HIV viral loads were higher in men (p=0.021). Further adjustment for frailty slightly attenuated the associations between multimorbidity and mortality risk (women: HR 1.55; 95% CI: 1.06 to 2.26; men: HR 1.36; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.82), but slightly increased associations between HIV multimorbidity and mortality risk.Conclusions: Multimorbidity is associated with mortality in this older black South African population. Health systems which currently focus on HIV should be reorganised to optimise identification and management of other prevalent chronic diseases.
|
|
| 8. |
- Berkman, Lisa F., et al.
(author)
-
Working conditions and health
- 2014. - 2
-
In: Social epidemiology. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780199395330 ; , s. 153--181
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
|
|
| 9. |
- Gomez-Olive, F. Xavier, et al.
(author)
-
Social conditions and disability related to the mortality of older people in rural South Africa
- 2014
-
In: International Journal of Epidemiology. - : Oxford University Press. - 0300-5771 .- 1464-3685. ; 43:5, s. 1531-1541
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: South Africa is experiencing a health and social transition including an ageing population and an HIV epidemic. We report mortality experience of an older rural South African population.Methods: Individual survey data and longer-term demographic data were used to describe factors associated with mortality. Individuals aged 50 years and over (n = 4085) answered a health and quality of life questionnaire in 2006 and were followed for 3 years thereafter. Additional vital events and socio-demographic data were extracted from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System from 1993 to 2010, to provide longer-term trends in mortality. Cox regression analysis was used to determine factors related to survival.Results: In 10 967 person-years of follow-up between August 2006 and August 2009, 377 deaths occurred. Women had lower mortality {hazard ratio [HR] 0.35 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28-0.45]}. Higher mortality was associated with being single [HR 1.48 (95% CI 1.16-1.88)], having lower household assets score [HR 1.79 (95% CI 1.28-2.51)], reporting greater disability [HR 2.40 (95% CI 1.68-3.42)] and poorer quality of life [HR 1.59 (95% CI 1.09-2.31)]. There was higher mortality in those aged under 69 as compared with those 70 to 79 years old. Census data and cause specific regression models confirmed that this was due to deaths from HIV/TB in the younger age group.Conclusions: Mortality due to HIV/TB is increasing in men, and to some extent women, aged over 50. Policy makers and practitioners should consider the needs of this growing and often overlooked group.
|
|
| 10. |
- Houle, Brian, et al.
(author)
-
Cognitive function and cardiometabolic disease risk factors in rural South Africa : baseline evidence from the HAALSI study
- 2019
-
In: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2458. ; 19:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Evidence on cognitive function in older South Africans is limited, with few population-based studies. We aimed to estimate baseline associations between cognitive function and cardiometabolic disease risk factors in rural South Africa.Methods: We use baseline data from "Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa" (HAALSI), a population-based study of adults aged 40 and above in rural South Africa in 2015. Cognitive function was measured using measures of time orientation, immediate and delayed recall, and numeracy adapted from the Health and Retirement Study cognitive battery (overall total cognitive score range 0-26). We used multiple linear regression to estimate associations between cardiometabolic risk factors (including BMI, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, history of stroke, alcohol frequency, and smoking status) and the overall cognitive function score, adjusted for potential confounders.Results: In multivariable-adjusted analyses (n = 3018; male = 1520; female = 1498; median age 59 (interquartile range 50-67)), cardiometabolic risk factors associated with lower cognitive function scores included: diabetes (b = - 1.11 [95% confidence interval: - 2.01, - 0.20] for controlled diabetes vs. no diabetes); underweight BMI (b = - 0.87 [CI: - 1.48, - 0.26] vs. normal BMI); and current and past smoking history compared to never smokers. Factors associated with higher cognitive function scores included: obese BMI (b = 0.74 [CI: 0.39, 1.10] vs. normal BMI); and controlled hypertension (b = 0.53 [CI: 0.11, 0.96] vs. normotensive).Conclusions: We provide an important baseline from rural South Africa on the associations between cardiometabolic disease risk factors and cognitive function in an older, rural South African population using standardized clinical measurements and cut-offs and widely used cognitive assessments. Future studies are needed to clarify temporal associations as well as patterns between the onset and duration of cardiometabolic conditions and cognitive function. As the South African population ages, effective management of cardiometabolic risk factors may be key to lasting cognitive health.
|
|
