Description:

J. Josh Snodgrass, Department of Anthropology and Center for Global Health, University of Oregon

Epidemiological changes and demographic trends over the past few decades, driven by shifts in lifestyles and urbanization, have highlighted the prominence of chronic conditions at older ages. While population aging has gained broad popular attention as a global issue, the vast majority of data collection continues to be focused on wealthy nations like the United States. Yet low- and middle-income countries have large and growing populations of older adults and need evidence to inform health system responses to an aging world and the resulting impact on chronic non-communicable disease burden. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) is a data collection platform generating cross-nationally comparable health data on older adults (n=>42,000) from six countries at different stages of economic development and demographic transition (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa). The present paper has two objectives: 1) use preliminary Wave 1 dried blood spot (DBS) data from a core set of biomarkers (C-reactive protein [CRP], hemoglobin, glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c], Epstein-Barr virus [EBV] antibodies, and HIV) to objectively examine chronic disease burden among older adults; and 2) consider how socioeconomic factors (e.g., income and residence location) influence depression diagnosis among older adults. Key findings include steady declines in health with age (with women consistently in worse health throughout the lifespan), severe underdiagnosis of mental health conditions (e.g., depression), and marked inequalities in health between the poor and the rich and between rural and urban populations.