Intensifying concerns about inequities in wellbeing in SSA typically concentrate on gender, ethnicity and rural-urban residence as major axes of inequality. Yet, age may be another important fault line, with older people bearing disproportionate burdens of ill-health, disability (mainly due to non-communicable diseases), illiteracy and poverty compared to younger-aged adults – as well as systematically less access to essential care and social services.
We investigate the extent, patterns and determinants of age-based disparities in wellbeing, and the wider impacts of older people’s unmet care needs on families and communities.