Complexity Forum

Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System: a research site in rural South Africa

Dr. Gómez-Olivé works at MRC/Wits Agincourt Research Unit, University of Witwatersrand and is a Bell Fellow at Harvard Population Center. His research focuses on health and well-being of HIV and NCD epidemics in rural Southern Africa and the evaluation of health systems’ chronic care interventions.

The MRC/Wits Agincourt Research Unit has been following a population of 100000 people in the rural sub-district of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province, in South Africa since 1992. The Agincourt Health and socio-Demographic Surveillance System was stablished to collect the most needed information in rural Africa to define socio-demographic trends in this population that could be used to support policy makers in taking decisions based on evidence. A baseline census followed by yearly updates is used as the demographic platform on top of which different epidemiological studies have been implemented. The information collected covers the life course from newborns to older ages and is exploring the epidemiological and health transitions that rural Africa is rapidly moving through. Agincourt Research Unit is committed to a policy of sharing the datasets resulting from our studies with the research community and is open to new collaborations using existing data and opening new research areas of work.