Assessing the health state/disability score of the elderly in sub-Saharan Africa: An analysis using the Frontier method

This paper uses a parametric stochastic frontier approach (coming from the economic literature) to explore the impact of the occupational activities and the living conditions in the slums on the health performance among the adult population aged 50 and up. We measure the health performance using the disability scores from the WHO. In our estimation strategy, we first consider the WHODAS II – 12 items score and thereafter simultaneously analyze several dimensions of health state description (cognitive, mobility, pain and discomfort, sleep and affect, etc.). We use individual data from the WHO’s Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) in partnership with the INDEPTH network. The SAGE-INDEPTH survey provides longitudinal data on ageing in various Demographic surveillance sites (DSS) in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. This survey collects information on the older persons’ health profiles, economic activities, cares and supports provided and received, and a broad range of self-reported assessments of health and well-being.