Celia Gregson, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Bristol and The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-ZIM), and Honorary Consultant Geriatrician at the Royal United Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Bath, has been awarded a prestigious NIHR Professorship for her research programme ‘Healthy ageing in sub-Saharan Africa’.

Professor Gregson is one of four leading health researchers working in Africa and Asia who have been awarded the NIHR Professorships in this most recent round.  Each award includes a leadership and development programme, and funding for early-career research and support posts. This award is complimented by additional investment from the University of Bristol. 

The research project will analyse data from 5,030 older adults living in Zimbabwe, The Gambia, and South Africa, to understand how commonly people are ageing healthily - and unhealthily - and how this influences quality of life.

The study will develop an evidence-based clinical framework to assess and manage chronic disorders of ageing, such as walking, balance, nutrition, memory, mood, eyesight, and hearing.

Working with a range of stakeholders, healthcare experts and older people themselves, a health check-up for people over 65 years will be developed.  The check-up will be trialled in Zimbabwe to assess the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and costs of implementing community-based health checks.

Towards the end of the five-year research programme a set of tools will be developed to guide the structured, comprehensive, person-centred assessment and management of older people, ready for scale-up across sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Gregson said: “Thanks to advances in health and sanitation, around the world people are living longer than ever before, with the greatest changes happening in Africa. In these added years of life, older people understandably want health and wellbeing, which is ‘healthy ageing’.

“However, healthcare services are not currently configured to provide for rapidly ageing populations, meaning older people are more likely to be living with disability and dependence.

“We want to understand why some people age healthily and some ‘unhealthily’ in Zimbabwe, The Gambia, and South Africa, and then develop an ‘Ageing Check-up’, run by nurses and therapists in local communities, where older people can be assessed and offered practical management to maintain health as they age.”

Professor Waljit Dhillo, NIHR Academy Dean, said: “I’m delighted to warmly welcome our latest cohort of NIHR Global Research Professors. As leaders in their fields, these outstanding individuals will play a key role in improving the health and care of people around the world as well as developing early career researchers in their teams worldwide.”

Professor Agnes Nairn, Pro Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement at the University of Bristol, added: “Congratulations to Professor Gregson on this prestigious NIHR Professorship.  The research programme gives us the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of people in low and middle income countries (LMICs).

“Through our established global health research network across Africa we can work collaboratively to proactively plan innovative ways of providing healthcare to help people age well that can influence policy and practice.”

During the five-year study, the Bristol research team will grow a highly skilled and experienced Global Health and Ageing Research team working collaboratively between a newly launched Global health and Ageing Research Unit at the University and The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-ZIM), to ensure positive impacts on older people’s health for many years to come.

NIHR Global Research Professorships are awarded to academic leaders with a track-record of applied health research in low and middle income countries. Since 2018, eight Global Research Professorships have been awarded, to leaders in areas as diverse as HIV, hospital-acquired infections and global disability.

The five-year NIHR Global Health Professorship programme ‘Healthy Ageing in sub-Saharan Africa’ was awarded £1,994,094 and started on 1 April 2023 (ref: NIHR302394).