The population-level impact of public-sector antiretroviral therapy rollout on adult mortality in rural Malawi

Mortality risk information and health-seeking behavior during an epidemic

In a context where pessimistic survival perceptions have been widespread as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Fig. 1 A), we study vaccine uptake and other health behaviors during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging a longitudinal cohort study in rural Malawi that has been followed for up to 25 y, we document that a 2017 mortality risk information intervention designed to reduce pessimistic mortality perceptions (Fig. 1 B) resulted in improved health behavior, including COVID-19 vaccine uptake (Fig. 1 C). We also report indirect effects for siblings and household members. This was likely the result of a reinforcing process where the intervention triggered engagement with the healthcare system and stronger beliefs in the efficacy of modern biomedical treatments, which led to the adoption of health risk reduction behavior, including vaccine uptake. Our findings suggest that health information interventions focused on survival perceptions can be useful in promoting health behavior and participation in the formal healthcare system, even during health crises-such as the COVID-19 pandemic-that are unanticipated at the time of the intervention. We also note the importance of the intervention design, where establishing rapport, tailoring the content to the local context, and spending time with respondents to convey the information contributed to the salience of the message.

"I am adhering to HIV treatment so that I can live to support her": A qualitative study of upward intergenerational support in South Africa

Background

Intergenerational family care, which was upended by the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), may return to a pre-HIV era arrangement as access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) expands and treated adults can once again provide support for older household members. Empirical research has demonstrated positive 'spillover effects' of ART uptake from treated adults to younger generations, yet much less is known about the nature and breadth of such effects to older generations. This study explores the role and lived experiences among adults who take up ART and those of an older generation with whom they live.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews (n = 46) embedded in the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in rural South Africa, between July and September 2022. We purposefully sampled two respondent categories: (i) young or middle-aged adults on ART (aged 18-59 years old); and (ii) older adults (aged ≥60 years old) who were affiliated with a young or middle-aged adult on ART. We used thematic content analysis to extract, code, and categorise relevant text by types of upward spillover effects from ART in younger adults to older adults. Quantitative data was extracted from the existing Agincourt HDSS database and matched to qualitative interview data based on Clinic link unique identifiers of study participants.

Results

Mean age was 41 years among young or middle-aged adults (n = 29) and 72 years among older adults (n = 17). Among younger adults, time on ART ranged from five months to more than 21 years. Both young or middle-aged adults on ART and older adults reported positive spillover effects for older adults across five main tiers: caregiving, financial support, physical and mental health, living arrangements and household relationships, and stigma and reputation. Spillover challenges included financial costs and caregiving responsibilities following ART initiation of young or middle-aged adults, although these additional caregiving responsibilities were generally not perceived as particularly burdensome.

Conclusions

ART is likely to benefit older adults in South Africa whose families are affected by HIV. This study identified a wide range of perceived spillover effects from ART in younger adults to older adults, including improvements to upward intergenerational support. These qualitative findings offer a guide to researchers, policymakers, and donors to capitalise on the broader societal effects of a large-scale health intervention to further support family structures and meet the needs of a growing older population.

Resilience, Accelerated Aging and Persistently Poor Health: Diverse Trajectories of Health in Malawi

Individuals age at vastly different rates resulting in significant within-population heterogeneity in health and aging outcomes. This diversity in health and aging trajectories has rarely been investigated among low-income aging populations that have experienced substantial hardships throughout their lifecourses. Utilizing 2006-2018 data from the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) and estimating group-based trajectory models (GBTM), our analyses identified three distinct lifecourse health trajectories: (1) comparatively good initial mental and physical health that persisted throughout the lifecourse ("resilient aging"); (2) relatively good initial mental and physical health that started to deteriorate during mid-adulthood ("accelerated aging"); and (3) poor initial mental and physical health that further declined over the lifecourse ("aging with persistently poor health"). For both physical and mental health, men were more likely to enjoy resilient aging than women. Predictors other than gender of trajectory membership sometimes confirmed, and sometimes contradicted, hypotheses derived from high-income country studies. Our analyses highlight the long arm of early life conditions and gender in determining aging trajectories and show that a non-trivial sub-population is characterized by aging with persistently poor health. The study uncovers widening gaps in health outcomes between those who age with resilience and those who experience accelerated aging.

Intergenerational spillover effects of antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review and future directions for research

BACKGROUND

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) may influence individuals who do not receive the intervention but who are connected in some way to the person who does. Relatively little is known, however, about the size and scope of, what we term, spillover effects of ART. We explored intergenerational spillover effects of ART in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and identified several directions for future research.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review between March and April 2022. We systematically searched PubMed, PsycINFO, EconLit, OTseeker, AIDSInfo, Web of Science, CINHAL, Google Scholar and African Index Medicus. We analysed the distribution of included studies over time and summarised their findings. We examined the intergenerational impact of ART provision to working-age adults living with HIV on children ('downward' spillover effects) and older adults ('upward' spillover effects). We categorised types of intergenerational spillover effects according to broad themes which emerged from our analysis of included studies.

FINDINGS

We identified 26 studies published between 2005 and 2022 with 16 studies assessing spillover effects from adults to children (downward), and 1 study explicitly assessing spillover effects from working-age adults to older adults (upward). The remaining studies did not fully specify the direction of spillover effects. Most spillover effects of ART to household and family members were beneficial and included improvements in wealth, labour market outcomes, health outcomes and health services utilisation, schooling, and household composition. Both children and older adults benefited from ART availability among adults. Detrimental spillover effects were only reported in three studies and included financial and opportunity costs associated with health services utilisation and food insecurity in the first year after ART.

CONCLUSIONS

ART may lead to substantial spillover effects across generations and sectors in SSA. Further research is needed to capitalise on positive spillover effects while mitigating potential negative spillover effects. The returns to investments in large-scale health interventions such as ART may be underestimated without considering these societal benefits.

Differences in healthy longevity by HIV status and viral load among older South African adults: an observational cohort modelling study

BACKGROUND

The population of people living with HIV in South Africa is rapidly ageing due to increased survivorship attributable to antiretroviral therapy (ART). We sought to understand how the combined effects of HIV and ART have led to differences in healthy longevity by HIV status and viral suppression in this context.

METHODS

In this observational cohort modelling study we use longitudinal data from the 2015 baseline interview (from Nov 13, 2014, to Nov 30, 2015) and the 2018 longitudinal follow-up interview (from Oct 12, 2018, to Nov 7, 2019) of the population-based study Health and Ageing in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) to estimate life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) of adults aged 40 years and older in rural South Africa. Respondents who consented to HIV testing, responded to survey questions on disability, and who were either interviewed in both surveys or who died between survey waves were included in the analysis. We estimate life expectancy and DFLE by HIV status and viral suppression (defined as <200 copies per mL) using Markov-based microsimulation.

FINDINGS

Among the 4322 eligible participants from the HAALSI study, we find a clear gradient in remaining life expectancy and DFLE based on HIV serostatus and viral suppression. At age 45 years, the life expectancy of a woman without HIV was 33·2 years (95% CI 32·0-35·0), compared with 31·6 years (29·2-34·1) a woman with virally suppressed HIV, and 26·4 years (23·1-29·1) for a woman with unsuppressed HIV; life expectancy for a 45 year old man without HIV was 27·2 years (25·8-29·1), compared with 24·1 years (20·9-27·2) for a man with virally suppressed HIV, and 17·4 years (15·0-20·3) for a man with unsuppressed HIV. Men and women with viral suppression could expect to live nearly as many years of DFLE as HIV-uninfected individuals at ages 45 years and 65 years.

INTERPRETATION

These results highlight the tremendous benefits of ART for population health in high-HIV-prevalence contexts and reinforce the need for continued work in making ART treatment accessible to ageing populations.

FUNDING

National Institutes of Health.

Cohort profile: the mature adults cohort of the Malawi longitudinal study of families and health (MLSFH-MAC)

PURPOSE

The Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC) contributes to global ageing studies by providing a rare opportunity to study the processes of individual and population ageing, the public health and social challenges associated with ageing and the coincident shifts in disease burdens, in a low-income, high HIV prevalence, sub-Saharan African (SSA) context.

PARTICIPANTS

The MLSFH-MAC is an open population-based cohort study of mature adults aged 45+ years living in rural communities in three districts in Malawi. Enrolment at baseline is 1266 individuals in 2012. Follow-ups were in 2013, 2017 and 2018 when the cohort size reached 1626 participants in 2018.

FINDINGS TO DATE

Survey instruments cover ageing-related topics such as cognitive and mental health, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and related health literacy, subjective survival expectations, measured biomarkers including HIV, grip strength, hypertension, fasting glucose, body mass index (BMI), broad individual-level and household-level social and economic information, a 2018 qualitative survey of mature adults and community officials, 2019 surveys of village heads, healthcare facilities and healthcare providers in the MLSFH-MAC study areas. Across many domains, MLSFH-MAC allows for comparative research with global ageing studies through harmonised measures and instruments. Key findings to date include a high prevalence of depression and anxiety among older adults, evidence for rapid declines in cognitive health with age, a low incidence of HIV among mature adults, rising prevalence of HIV due to increased survival of HIV-positive individuals and poor physical health with high NCD prevalence.

FUTURE PLANS

An additional wave of MLSFH-MAC is forthcoming in 2021, and future expansions of the cohort are planned. MLSFH-MAC data will also be publicly released and will provide a wealth of information unprecedented for ageing studies in a low-income SSA context that broadly represents the socioeconomic environment of millions of individuals in south-eastern Africa.

Life-Course Trauma and Later Life Mental, Physical, and Cognitive Health in a Postapartheid South African Population: Findings From the HAALSI study

Objective: To investigate the relationships between exposure to life-course traumatic events (TEs) and later life mental, physical, and cognitive health outcomes in the older population of a rural South African community. Method: Data were from baseline interviews with 2,473 adults aged ≥40 years in the population-representative Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) study, conducted in 2015. We assessed exposure to 16 TEs, and used logistic regression models to estimate associations with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), activities of daily living disability, and cognitive impairment. Results: Participants reported an average of 5 (SD = 2.4) TEs over their lifetimes. Exposure was ubiquitous across sociodemographic and socioeconomic groups. Trauma exposure was associated with higher odds of depression, PTSD, and disability, but not with cognitive health. Discussion: Results suggest that TEs experienced in earlier life continue to reverberate today in terms of mental health and physical disability outcomes in an older population in rural South Africa.

The Demography of Mental Health Among Mature Adults in a Low-Income, High-HIV-Prevalence Context

Very few studies have investigated mental health in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using data from Malawi, this article provides a first picture of the demography of depression and anxiety (DA) among mature adults (aged 45 or older) in a low-income country with high HIV prevalence. DA are more frequent among women than men, and individuals affected by one are often affected by the other. DA are associated with adverse outcomes, such as poorer nutrition intake and reduced work efforts. DA also increase substantially with age, and mature adults can expect to spend a substantial fraction of their remaining lifetime-for instance, 52 % for a 55-year-old woman-affected by DA. The positive age gradients of DA are not due to cohort effects, and they are in sharp contrast to the age pattern of mental health that has been shown in high-income contexts, where older individuals often experience lower levels of DA. Although socioeconomic and risk- or uncertainty-related stressors are strongly associated with DA, they do not explain the positive age gradients and gender gap in DA. Stressors related to physical health, however, do. Hence, our analyses suggest that the general decline of physical health with age is the key driver of the rise of DA with age in this low-income SSA context.

Cognition, Health, and Well-Being in a Rural Sub-Saharan African Population

Cognitive health is an important dimension of well-being in older ages, but few studies have investigated the demography of cognitive health in sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) growing population of mature adults (= persons age 45+). We use data from the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) to document the age and gender patterns of cognitive health, the contextual and life-course correlates of poor cognitive health, and the understudied linkages between cognitive and physical/mental well-being. Surprisingly, the age-pattern of decline in cognitive health is broadly similar to that observed in the U.S. We also find that women have substantially worse cognitive health than men, and experience a steeper age-gradient in cognitive ability. Strong social ties and exposure to socially complex environments are associated with higher cognitive health, as is higher socioeconomic status. Poor cognitive health is associated with adverse social and economic well-being outcomes such as less nutrition intake, lower income, and reduced work efforts even in this subsistence agriculture context. Lower levels of cognitive health are also strongly associated with increased levels of depression and anxiety, and are associated with worse physical health measured through both self-reports and physical performance. Our findings suggest that cognition plays a key-but understudied-role in shaping late-life well-being in low-income populations.