The Impact of the AIDS Epidemic on the Health of the Elderly in Tanzania
By the end of 1999, an estimated 24.5 million Africans were living with HIV/AIDS, accounting for more that seventy percent of all global infections. In Tanzania, an estimated 1.3 million people (of a total population of 33 million) were believed to...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/07/1552025/impact-aids-epidemic-health-elderly-tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19588 |
| Summary: | By the end of 1999, an estimated 24.5
million Africans were living with HIV/AIDS, accounting for
more that seventy percent of all global infections. In
Tanzania, an estimated 1.3 million people (of a total
population of 33 million) were believed to be infected with
HIV, and 140,000 had already died of AIDS. One in every 12
adults is infected. African couples have large families,
partly so there will be adult children to support parents in
old age. Instead, because of the AIDS epidemic, the elderly
are often caring for their infected children, or orphaned
grandchildren. The authors use longitudinal household data
from Tanzania's Kagera region, to measure the impact of
prime-age adult mortality on the level, and changes in
physical well-being (as measured by body mass index, or BMI)
of the elderly. They find that the elderly in non-poor
households have higher BMI. Non-poor households are more
likely to have an adult death, and the elderly in these
households are more likely to suffer declining BMI in the
months before the death of a prime-age adult. The elderly in
both poor, and non-poor households experience a significant
drop in BMI after an adult death, but BMI recovers over
time, and there is no long-run association with BMI levels,
and recent adult deaths. The elderly hit hardest are those
in households nor receiving private transfers. Private
transfers received by other household members raise the BMI
of the elderly, especially after a recent adult death. There
is no evidence that nongovernmental organizations, or public
assistance to the household affects short-run changes in
BMI. The elderly who have more living children are
physically better off, but short-run increases in the number
of teenagers in the household are associated with declines
in BMI. Improving the incomes, and assets of the poor is key
to improving the overall BMI of the elderly. The elderly who
have more assets (such as better quality dwellings) tend to
have higher BMI. Controlling for individual, and household
characteristics, the elderly in communities with roads that
are navigable year-round, have substantially higher BMI.
Prevention of communicable diseases is key to reducing
short-run fluctuations in BMI - through preventing HIV, and
community immunization programs that benefit the elderly. |
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