hero image
Dr. Isabella Aboderin - International Federation on Ageing. Nairobi, Nairobi County, KENYA

Dr. Isabella Aboderin

Senior Research Scientist | Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, Oxford University

Nairobi, Nairobi County, KENYA

Dr. Aboderin is also Head of the Program on Aging and Development (APHRC) & Associate Prof of Gerontology at the University of Southampton.

Media

Publications:

Documents:

Photos:

Dr. Isabella Aboderin Photo

Videos:

Audio/Podcasts:

Biography

Dr. Isabella Aboderin is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Program on Aging and Development at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, Kenya, and an Associate Professor of Gerontology at the Centre for Research on Ageing, University of Southampton, UK.

Isabella is the Regional Chair for Africa of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), Technical Advisor to the Global Commission on Aging in Developing Countries, Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Ageing, and Board Member of HelpAge International and the United Nations International Institute on Ageing (INIA). She also serves on the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights Working Group on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa.

Isabella’s research and policy engagement center on a) illuminating the nexus between issues of ageing and core development agendas in Africa, with a focus on older adults’ socio-economic roles and intergenerational impacts, age-based inequalities in well-being, understandings of quality of life and resilience in old age, and health- and long-term care systems for older adults, and b) contributing to the development and consolidation of regional and national ageing policy and rights frameworks.

Isabella holds a PhD from the School for Policy Studies from the University of Bristol, UK, an MSc in Health Promotion Sciences from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the University of Bristol.

Areas of Expertise (7)

Older Adult Rights

Ageing Policy and Development

Social Determinants of Health in Old Age

Health Systems

Access to Health Care

Intergenerational Support

Family Relationships

Education (3)

University of Bristol: Ph.D., Social Policy Studies

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: MSc, Health Promotion Sciences

University of Bristol: BSc, Cellular and Molecular Pathology

Affiliations (8)

  • African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Program on Aging and Development
  • Centre for Research on Ageing University of Southampton Associate Professor of Gerontology
  • International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) Regional Chair for Africa
  • Global Commission on Aging in Developing Countries Technical Advisor
  • World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Ageing Member
  • HelpAge International Board Member
  • United Nations International Institute on Ageing (INIA) Board Member
  • African Commission on Human and People’s Rights Working Group on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa

Languages (3)

  • English
  • German
  • French

Media Appearances (3)

How will a population boom change Africa?

BBC News  online

2015-09-11

Isabella Aboderin is a senior research scientist at the African Population Health Research Centre in Nairobi and associate professor at the Centre for Research on Ageing, University of Southampton. "Africa is a young continent. It will remain the youngest region worldwide. However... the number of older people is going to grow more rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other place on this globe...

view more

Global Aging: 4 Myths Debunked

Forbes  online

2015-06-16

One myth contrasts “positive African values with the West’s,” said Isabella Aboderin, a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Program on Aging and Development at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya. This myth maintains that “in Africa, unlike the West, families wish to take care of and not abandon their elders,” said Aboderin...

view more

Ageing and healthy environments

HelpAge International  online

2013-05-30

The key note address from Dr Isabella Aboderin, a HelpAge board member, which focused on the power of evidence to support advocacy, as well as the importance of enhancing healthcare for older adults in Sub-Saharan Africa...

view more

Featured Articles (5)

Contexts, motives and experiences of Nigerian overseas nurses: understanding links to globalization


Journal of Clinical Nursing

2007 AIMS: Current understanding of the perspectives and experience of overseas trained nurses working in the UK and how these relate to conditions of globalization, is limited. This article (i) presents evidence on the contexts, circumstances and perspectives of Nigerian trained ...

view more


Modernisation and ageing theory revisited: current explanations of recent developing world and historical Western shifts in material family support for older people


Ageing and Society

2004 Modernisation and ageing theory has provided the main platform for the debate on changes in family support for older people in both the industrialised and the developing worlds...

view more


Decline in material family support for older people in urban Ghana, Africa: Understanding processes and causes of change


The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences

2004 Objectives: Material family support for older people in Ghana, as in other African countries, has declined in recent decades, exposing increasing numbers especially of urban elderly to destitution and poverty. The nature and causes of this decline remain poorly understood, ...

view more


Compression of morbidity and active ageing: key priorities for public health policy in the 21st century


Bulletin of the World Health Organization

2002 This section looks back to some ground-breaking contributions to public health, reproducing them in their original form and adding a commentary on their significance from a modern-day perspective. To complement the debate on global population ageing and its ...

view more


Stroke: the global burden


Health Policy and Planning

1995 Stroke is a major global health problem. It is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and disability in developed and increasingly in less developed countries. Worldwide, it is the leading cause of healthy years lost in late adulthood, and evidence indicates that the ...

view more


 Your profile is not published.

Contact