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Background and Objectives We reviewed the literature on older adults (OAs) who are caring for persons living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with the goal of adapting models of caregiver stress and coping to include culturally relevant and contextually appropriate factors specific to SSA, drawing on both life course and cultural capital theories. Research Design and Methods A systematic literature search found 81 articles published between 1975 and 2016 which were reviewed using a narrative approach. Primary sources of articles included electronic databases and relevant WHO websites. Results The main challenge of caregiving in SSA reflects significant financial constraints, specifically the lack of necessities such as food security, clean water, and access to health care. Caregiving is further complicated in SSA by serial bouts of caring for multiple individuals, including adult children and grandchildren, in the context of high levels of stigma associated with HIV. Factors promoting caregiver resilience included spirituality, bidirectional (reciprocal) caregiving, and collective coping strategies. Discussion and Implications The creation of a theoretical model of caregiving which focuses more broadly on the sociocultural context of caregiving could lead to new ways of developing interventions in low-resources communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a global demand for rehabilitation services but to date little attention has been paid to rehabilitation as part of the health agenda, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the scoping review was to get an overview of the needs and unmet needs for rehabilitation services described in the literature. Materials and methods: Electronic search was performed in PubMed and REHABDATA for studies published between 2000 and 2017. Results: Eighty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. Results revealed a profound need for rehabilitation among different user groups with non-communicable diseases and injuries across countries. However, this need considerably outstripped the provision of services, which left many people with substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation. The main reasons for the unmet needs for rehabilitation were the absence of or unequal geographical distribution of services within a country, lack of transportation, and unaffordability of the services. Conclusions: There are substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation and numerous barriers to accessing services. Efforts need to focus on building the capacity for rehabilitation research predominantly in low- and middle-income countries. The comprehensive data that this review provides is useful for raising awareness for the need of rehabilitation at policy level. There is a profound need for rehabilitation services due to the ageing population and growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases. This scoping review shows that the need for rehabilitation considerably outstrips the provision of services. There are substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation and numerous barriers to accessing services. Concerted global action to scale up quality rehabilitation services is needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is important to know whether the relationships between experienced and evaluative well-being and health are consistent across countries with different income levels. This would allow to confirm whether the evidence found in high income countries is the same as in low- and middle-income countries and to suggest policy recommendations that are generalisable across countries. We assessed the association of well-being with health status; analysed the differential relationship that positive affect, negative affect, and evaluative well-being have with health status; and examined whether these relationships are similar across countries.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, interviews were conducted amongst 53,269 adults from nine countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Evaluative well-being was measured with a short version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Quality of Life instrument, and experienced well-being was measured with the Day Reconstruction Method. Decrements in health were assessed with the 12-item version of WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Block-wise linear regression and structural equation models were employed.Results: Considering the overall sample, evaluative well-being was more strongly associated with health (β = -0.35) than experienced well-being (β = -0.14), and negative affect was more strongly associated with health (β = 0.10) than positive affect (β = -0.02). The relationship between health and well-being was similar across countries. Lower scores in evaluative well-being and a higher age were the factors more strongly related with a worse health.Conclusions: The different patterns observed across countries may be related to differences in the countries' gross domestic product, social protection system, economic situation, health care provision, lifestyle behaviours, or living conditions. The fact that evaluative well-being is more predictive of health than experienced well-being suggests that our level of satisfaction with our lives might be more important for our health than the actual emotions than we experience in our day-to-day lives and points out the need of interventions that improve the way people evaluate their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthy life expectancy -- sometimes called health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) -- is a form of health expectancy indicator that extends measures of life expectancy to account for the distribution of health states in the population. The World Health Organization reports on healthy life expectancy for 192 WHO Member States. This paper describes variation in average levels of population health across these countries and by sex for the year 2002. Methods: Mortality was analysed for 192 countries and disability from 135 causes assessed for 17 regions of the world. Health surveys in 61 countries were analyzed using new methods to improve the comparability of self-report data. Results: Healthy life expectancy at birth ranged from 40 years for males in Africa to over 70 years for females in developed countries in 2002. The equivalent "lost" healthy years ranged from 15% of total life expectancy at birth in Africa to 8-9% in developed countries. Conclusion: People living in poor countries not only face lower life expectancies than those in richer countries but also live a higher proportion of their lives in poor health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors associated with different components of arterial blood pressure in nine nationally-representative samples of people aged ≥50 years., Methods: Data were available for 53,289 people aged ≥18 years who participated in the SAGE (WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health) study conducted in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa, and the COURAGE (Collaborative Research on Ageing in Europe) study conducted in Finland, Poland, and Spain, between 2007 and 2012. Standard procedures were used to obtain diastolic and systolic blood pressure (DBP, SBP) measurements to identify hypertensive participants, and to determine mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP)., Results: The analytical sample consisted of 42,116 people aged 50 years or older. South Africa had the highest prevalence of hypertension (78.3%), and the highest measurements of MAP ± SD (113.6 ± 36.4 mmHg), SBP ± SD (146.4 ± 49.5 mmHg), and DBP ± SD (97.2 ± 33.9 mmHg). In the adjusted models, dose-dependent positive associations between Body Mass Index (BMI) and MAP or PP were observed in most countries (p < 0.05). Diabetes was positively associated with PP in most countries but the association between diabetes and MAP was less consistent. Stroke was associated with both higher MAP and PP in China, Ghana, and South Africa (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: Obesity and diabetes remain important modifiable risk factors for arterial peripheral resistance and stiffness as reflected by MAP and PP respectively. Controlling arterial pressure abnormalities after stroke events may be important for secondary prevention, particularly in developing countries., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Little information exists about the loss of all one's teeth (edentulism) among older adults in low- and middle-income countries. This study examines the prevalence of edentulism and associated factors among older adults in a cross-sectional study across six such countries. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO's) Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave 1 was used for this study with adults aged 50-plus from China (N = 13,367), Ghana (N = 4724), India (N = 7150), Mexico (N = 2315), Russian Federation (N = 3938) and South Africa (N = 3840). Multivariate regression was used to assess predictors of edentulism. The overall prevalence of edentulism was 11.7% in the six countries, with India, Mexico, and Russia has higher prevalence rates (16.3%-21.7%) than China, Ghana, and South Africa (3.0%-9.0%). In multivariate logistic analysis sociodemographic factors (older age, lower education), chronic conditions (arthritis, asthma), health risk behaviour (former daily tobacco use, inadequate fruits and vegetable consumption) and other health related variables (functional disability and low social cohesion) were associated with edentulism. The national estimates and identified factors associated with edentulism among older adults across the six countries helps to identify areas for further exploration and targets for intervention.

Older caregivers have major caregiving responsibilities in countries severely affected by the HIV epidemic, but little is known about their own health and well-being. We conducted this study to assess the association of caregiving responsibilities and self-perceived burden with caregivers' health, HIV status, background characteristics and care-receiving among older people in South Western Uganda. Men and women aged 50 years and older were recruited from existing cohort studies and clinic registers and interviewed at home. Health was measured through a composite score of health in eight domains, anthropometry and handgrip strength. Summary measures of caregiving responsibilities and self-reported burden were used to analyse the main associations. There were 510 participants, including 198 living with HIV. Four fifths of women and 66% of men were caregivers. Older respondents with no care responsibility had poorer scores on all health indicators (self-reported health score, body mass index and grip strength). Having a caregiving responsibility was not associated with poorer health status or quality of life. Notably, HIV-infected people, whether on antiretroviral treatment (ART) or not, had similar caregiving responsibilities and health status as others. The self-reported burden associated with caregiving was significantly associated with a poorer health score. One third of female caregivers were the single adult in the household with larger caregiving responsibilities. Many of these women are in the poorest wealth quartile of the households in the study and are therefore more likely to need assistance. Physical and financial supports were received by 70% and 63%, respectively. Those with larger caregiving responsibilities more frequently received support. Caregiving responsibilities were associated with better health status, greater satisfaction and quality of life. Older HIV-infected people, whether on ART or not, had similar caregiving responsibilities and self-reported health status as other older people.

Objective: To identify the cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the general population and to analyze their impact on health status., Method: The sample was composed of 256,445 subjects (55.9% women), from nationally representative samples of 52 countries worldwide participating in the World Health Organization's World Health Survey. Standardized and weighted prevalence of psychotic symptoms were calculated in addition to the impact on health status as assessed by functioning in multiple domains., Results: Overall prevalences for specific symptoms ranged from 4.80% (SE = 0.14) for delusions of control to 8.37% (SE = 0.20) for delusions of reference and persecution. Prevalence figures varied greatly across countries. All symptoms of psychosis produced a significant decline in health status after controlling for potential confounders. There was a clear change in health impact between subjects not reporting any symptom and those reporting at least one symptom (effect size of 0.55)., Conclusions: The prevalence of the presence of at least one psychotic symptom has a wide range worldwide varying as much as from 0.8% to 31.4%. Psychotic symptoms signal a problem of potential public health concern, independent of the presence of a full diagnosis of psychosis, as they are common and are related to a significant decrement in health status. The presence of at least one psychotic symptom is related to a significant poorer health status, with a regular linear decrement in health depending on the number of symptoms.