Three "Conversations" that tell the story of health and aging in rural South Africa

Physicians, professors and research scientists affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (HAALSA)—the ten-year (and counting) project that has been following a cohort that started as 5,000 men and women aged 40 and over—have penned three pieces in The Conversation that delve into unique aspects of this burgeoning population:

• Pioneering researchers Stephen Tollman and Kathleen Kahn from the University of the Witwatersrand reflect back on over 30 years of rural health research in this piece.
• Two of our former postdoctoral fellows—Molly Rosenberg and Lyndsay Kobayashi—collaborated with other HAALSA scientists to share some hopeful findings about the link between social grants and cognitive health/function, and, for some groups, reduced risk of mortality.
• HAALSA researchers spotlight a critical issue for the aging South African population—HIV prevention and treatment programs, which are currently focused on a younger demographic.