U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute on Aging (NIA) <http://www.nia.nih.gov/>
Embargoed for Release: Monday, September 27, 2010, 12 p.m., EDT
CONTACT: Barbara Cire, 301-496-1752, <e-mail:cireb@xxxxxxxxxxxx
NIA MEDIA AVAILABILITY
AGING IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES EXAMINED
Special journal supplement reports on international collaboration focused on Asia and Africa
WHAT: Being single, female, older, uneducated and poor are associated with poor health status and quality of life, according to a new collection of reports on aging from eight countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The reports, part of an international collaboration supported primarily by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), suggests that these characteristics were consistent indicators of health and state of well-being, although findings did vary among the countries studied.
A special supplement to the journal, Global Health Action, details these and other results of an international collaboration between the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the NIH, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Network with Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health (INDEPTH). With funding from the NIA, researchers from WHO's Study of Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) and INDEPTH evaluated the health and well-being of individuals in eight countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Cross-national data from this project are being made available to researchers worldwide to promote further investigation and evaluation. NIA is also making funds available to investigators in the eight countries to support doctoral research using the data.
"We are only a few years away from a historic watershed -- when for the first time in human history, those aged 65 and over in the world will outnumber those under age five," said Richard Suzman, Ph.D., director of NIA's Division of Behavioral and Social Research. "Even though some of these countries are beginning to transition from infectious disease to noncommunicable disease as the major cause of morbidity and mortality, awareness of population aging is only now being recognized in developing countries. This collaboration provides important initial data which can be used to chart the future."
Countries in the INDEPTH WHO-SAGE study included Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Viet Nam. Other participating institutions included the Umeå Centre for Global Health Research at Umeå University in Sweden, the University of Witwatersrand School of Public Health in South Africa, and the Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies in Cambridge, Mass.
ARTICLE: Global Health Action Supplement 2, "Growing Older in Asia and Africa," 2010. DOI: 10.3402/gha.v3i0.5302. Publicly available on September 27, 2010 at <http://www.globalhealthaction.net>.
SPOKESPERSON: Richard Suzman, Ph.D., Director, NIA Division of Behavioral and Social Research, is available to discuss the articles.
CONTACT: To schedule an interview, contact Barbara Cire in the NIA Office of Communications and Public Liaison, (301) 496-1752, <e:mail:cireb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>.
The NIA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It leads the Federal effort supporting and conducting research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. For more information on research and aging, go to <www.nia.nih.gov>.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.
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