Health Care for Older Adults in Uganda: Lessons for the Developing World

Abstract

Approximately two-thirds of the world's older adults live in developing nations. By 2050, as many as 80% of such older people will live in low- and middle-income countries. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the number of individuals aged 60 and older is projected to reach 163 million. Despite this demographic wave, the majority of Africa has limited access to qualified geriatric health care. Although foreign aid and capacity-building efforts can help to close this gap over time, it is likely that failure to understand the unique context of Africa's older adults, many of whom are marginalized, will lead to inadequacies in service delivery and poor health outcomes. As the need for culturally competent care of older adults gains recognition in the developed world, research in geriatric care in developing countries should progress in tandem. By examining the multidimensional challenges that an older woman with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in rural Uganda faces, this article makes contextualized policy recommendations for older adults in Africa and provides lessons for the developing world.

Establishing the First Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program in Ghana

“…Migration of the youth from rural areas to cities, increasing work and study demands on the younger workforce, and stigmatization of older adults, especially those who are frail or have dementia, have contributed to increasing isolation and neglect of older persons in African societies. A new trend where working children decline to remit aging parents contradicts the cultural expectation of reciprocity in social and economic support that existed for most Africans including Ghanaians …”

“…A new trend where working children decline to remit aging parents contradicts the cultural expectation of reciprocity in social and economic support that existed for most Africans including Ghanaians. [9][10][11] However, there is strong in-country support for improving care of older adults. The Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare has developed a National Aging Bill, and the National Health Insurance has a policy that exempts persons 70 years and older from paying a premium to cover basic care.…”

Enablers and Barriers of a Cross-Cultural Geriatric Education Distance Training Programme: The Singapore-Uganda Experience

“…Differences in levels of priority assigned to geriatric care may account for the different perceptions between the Singaporean teachers and Ugandan learners as well. As the field of geriatrics is still in its infancy in Africa, Ugandan learners may have been more focused on acquiring basic knowledge of geriatric care [24,25]. Singapore, however, being well-established in the field and having a multi-cultural society, has placed much emphasis on cultural competence in medical education, and teachers there tended to take a more collaborative approach.…”

Health systems readiness to provide geriatric friendly care services in Uganda: a cross-sectional study

“…In Uganda's context, although no studies have looked at the full scale of the state of geriatric care services at public health facilities, factors for low readiness identified in this study have been documented in other studies. These highlighted that Uganda lacks specialised geriatric centers (45), trained geriatric specialists, geriatric training institutions (12) and that older adults face health care access challenges (23). For this, a system-wide response is needed if Uganda is to achieve the 2020 global health ageing goal (5).…”