Walking the health geographers' talk: Aging and health inequalities in sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Health inequalities are central to healthy geography, yet health geographers rarely act to resolve them.• Integrated knowledge translation (iKT) that includes knowledge holders and users in research inception, implementation, and dissemination can expose global health inequalities and generate collaborative solutions. • Health geography iKT can reveal the location and (re)production of health inequalities and produce resolutions.Although inequalities in the production, distribution, and determinants of health are central to health geographers, the discipline of health geography suffers from a "know-do" gap. These health inequalities are personified in aging populations; older adults in sub-Saharan Africa experience shorter life expectancies than in high-income countries and endure higher disability and disease rates in old age. Concomitantly, the region experiences resource shortages and competing population priorities. Evidence-informed knowledge and practice is imperative. Informed by the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research Principles, an integrated knowledge translation (iKT) case study with knowledge holders and users in the inception, implementation, and dissemination of research in Uganda was undertaken. This paper presents the capstone iKT event that shared research results with knowledge owners and users, addressed research implications and applications, and identified future research and policy agendas. Although vast contextual inequalities impede aging health disparity solutions, findings indicate that employing an iKT approach generates possibilities that not only support older adults, but also population health across the life course. Research incorporating iKT overcomes many contextual realities deemed to impede old age health equity. Incorporating iTK into health geography can reveal where inequality exists, expose how inequality is (re)produced, and suggest solutions that generates more equitable futures.