Determinants of health and well-being among the elderly (SABE)

Principal Investigator(s):

Pelaez, Martha; Palloni, Alberto; Albala, Cecilia; Alfonso, Juan Carlos; Ham-Chande, Roberto; Hennis, Anselm; Lebrao, Maria Lucia; Lesn-Diaz, Esther; Pantelides, Edith; Prats, Omar

This cross-sectional 7-country multicentre study of health conditions in urban Latin America and the Caribbean (Barbados) was funded by the Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Health Research Council, PAHO: US $120,000.

The survey to evaluate the determinants of health and well-being among the elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean (known by its Spanish acronym, SABE) tapped more than 11,000 persons aged 60 years and older in seven of the region's cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Bridgetown (Barbados), São Paulo (Brasil), Santiago (Chile), Havana (Cuba), México City (Mexico), and Montevideo (Uruguay). SABE gathered data in 1999/2000 about older adults' physical and mental health, financial situation, family support, work history, and housing conditions. Barbados contributed 1,800 SABE participants, and researchers from the CDRC have published a 70-page World Health Organization monograph and four research articles using SABE data to date.

Information from the Barbados arm of the SABE study provided the evidence base during the development of a recent draft white paper on ageing ("Towards a Society for All Ages: A National Policy on Ageing", Jan 2010) developed by the Barbados Ministries of Health and Social Care. In an encouraging early example of open data access, the full SABE dataset is available online for use by researchers worldwide (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACDA/).