Skip to main content

Bournemouth University

BU Research Blog

Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University

  • Home
  • RDS Team
    • Faculty-Facing Staff
    • Funding Development Team
    • Project Delivery Team
    • Research Excellence Team
    • RDS Governance Team
  • Clinical Governance @ BU
  • Research Ethics @ BU
  • REF
    • BU REF 2021 Code of Practice
    • Declaration of Staff Circumstances
    • BU’s Unit of Assessment Teams
    • REF FAQs
    • Archive – REF 2014
      • BU REF 2014 Code of Practice
      • REF 2014 Frequently Asked Questions
        • REF 2014 Overview
        • Staff eligibility
        • Mock REF 2014 (REF preparation) exercises at BU
        • REF 2014 Assessment of outputs
        • REF 2014 Staff selection
        • REF 2014 Equality and diversity
  • Impact
    • Partnerships & collaborations
    • Working with businesses
      • Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
    • Communicating your research
    • Influencing policy makers
    • Public engagement
      • Quick guide to public engagement
    • Student engagement
      • Stages of engagement
      • Case study: Sean Beer
      • Case study: James Gavin
      • Case study: Anna Feigenbaum
  • Research Toolkit
  • Research Lifecycle
  • Policy
  • PGR
    • The Doctoral College Team

11 April 2024

Dissemination event – Inequalities in nutrition & healthy ageing for older African adults.

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN samenyah

The Inequalities in Nutrition & Healthy Ageing for Older African Adults project (www.bournemouth.ac.uk/african-food) is funded by the funded UKRI/BBSRC Food4Years. The aims were to use innovative methods to understand the nutrition landscape and to gain insights to co-create interventions to address inequalities in nutrition and healthy ageing for older African adults. A dissemination event was held on the 25th of March 2024, at Bournemouth University, to share findings from the project with participants, community members and stakeholders. There was also an exhibition of outputs from the Photovoice study showcasing participants photos around their thoughts and opinions on inequalities and healthy ageing in older African adults. The event featured a culturally-tailored dinner and a showcase of healthy produce including fruits, vegetables mostly consumed in African countries to highlight their value in contributing to healthy, balanced culturally-tailored diets.


Project overview:
The United Kingdom is home to a diverse population, including a significant number of older African adults who often face unique challenges related to health and nutrition. Individuals from Black African communities within the UK often experience a complex nutrition landscape where they sometimes maintain their traditional diets, but also adapt to some key features of western diet and food culture, presenting a complex mix of nutrition and health outcomes. This project set out to explore the determinants of inequalities in nutrition and healthy ageing in Africans over 55 years living in the UK using Photovoice. Through rigorous research and extensive community engagement, our project has shed light on critical issues and paved the way for actionable solutions to promote healthy ageing in older adults from the African community.
The research used community-based participatory research methods including photography (Photovoice) and roundtable discussions to explore and identify factors that drive food choices & behaviour and nutritional needs as identified by the participants themselves. Collectively with key stakeholders, the research team identified solutions, recommendations and key research priority areas to promote nutrition and improve health outcomes for older Africans.

Key Insights:
1. Tradition: The need to pass on authentic traditional recipes to children and grandchildren is one particularly important determinant of food choice as food is often associated with one’s identity.
2. Nutritional Challenges: Many older African adults face barriers to accessing culturally appropriate and nutritious food options, leading to inadequate diets and increased risk of chronic diseases.
3. Socioeconomic Factors: Economic instability and social exclusion exacerbate health and nutrition inequalities, creating additional challenges for older African adults in the UK.
4. Health Awareness and Education: Limited access to health information and education exacerbates nutrition inequalities, leading to higher rates of diet-related diseases and poor health outcomes.

Actionable Recommendations:
Based on findings of this research and through stakeholder engagement, the following recommendations are given to address health and nutrition inequalities among older African adults in the UK:
1. Culturally-tailored Interventions: Develop culturally sensitive nutrition programs and healthcare services tailored to the needs of older African adults.
2. Food Accessibility Programs: Increase access to culturally appropriate and affordable food options through community gardens and farmers’ markets.
3. Nutrition Education Initiatives: Implement targeted nutrition education programs that prioritise cultural relevance, focusing on traditional foods, cooking methods, and dietary practices.

Outputs:

Photobook: https://photobook.onelink.me/QDvH/ephotobook?file=aJGrD


Looking Ahead:
We acknowledge that our work has only just started. It is a call to action—a rallying cry for continued collaboration, advocacy, and innovation. Together, we can develop innovative solutions that address health inequalities, improve quality of life and secure healthy ageing in individuals of African heritage in the UK.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who contributed to this project—funder, participants, research team and community members. Together we have laid the foundation for future research on healthy ageing. The conversations and actions aimed at driving change towards healthy ageing among Black African people living in the UK continue.


Project team:
Dr Sophia Amenyah – Lead researcher, Bournemouth University
Professor Jane Murphy – Professor of Nutrition, Bournemouth University
Professor Lee-Ann Fenge – Professor of Social Care, Bournemouth University
Dr Hibbah Osei-Kwasi – Lecturer, Loughborough University
Mrs Janet Adjei, Research assistant – Bournemouth University

Tags: Uncategorized

Related Posts

  • Eating more eggs to increase protein intake in older adults28 September 2020
  • BU’s Joanne Holmes’ interview with Elder about healthy appetite in older people11 March 2018
  • New journal article: Applying psychotherapy concepts to physical activity interventions for older adults24 November 2021
  • Next inaugural lecture – Nutrition, new view on health, ageing and practice22 March 2018

BU staff can login below:

Other services

  • ProGRess logo

Don’t miss a post!

Subscribe for the BU Research Digest, delivered freshly every day.

Recent posts

BU research Funding opportunities EU
  • Supervisory Lunchbite | ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership30 May 2025
  • Help highlight BU’s Impact – Share your involvement in Community and Cultural Events30 May 2025
  • Free Research Event – Wednesday 11th June – A Celebration of ‘Novel Food’ Related Research30 May 2025
  • Two new midwifery papers from CMWH29 May 2025
  • Share Your Views on Public Engagement – Royal Society Survey Open Until 30 June27 May 2025
  • Join our June seminars in HSS27 May 2025
  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call30 May 2025
  • ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar23 May 2025
  • Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published19 May 2025
  • Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published28 April 2025
  • This week – Konfer – an innovation and collaboration platform17 March 2025
  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 202510 March 2025
  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call30 May 2025
  • ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar23 May 2025
  • European Migration Research and Impact – Invitation to a Roundtable Discussion16 April 2025
  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 202510 March 2025
  • Update on UKRO services13 February 2025
  • The ARTEMIS project consortium European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease4 February 2025

Search by Category

Search by popular post topics

AHRC BU research clinical research CMMPH CMWH collaboration collaborative research conference congratulations Doctoral College Dr. Pramod Regmi Edwin-blog-post ESRC EU event Events funding funding opportunities Fusion Health horizon 2020 HSC impact innovation knowledge exchange media midwifery Nepal nhs NIHR open access Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen Prof. Vanora Hundley publication public engagement publishing ref research Research Councils research professional RKE development framework RKEDF social sciences training widening participation

RSS Research Information Network

  • Physical Sciences Case studies: information use and discovery
  • Information handling in collaborative research: an exploration of five case studies
  • Information literacy monitoring and evaluation
  • Data centres: their use, value and impact
  • Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications

RSS UKRI

Browse all our categories
  • Awarded & submitted bids
  • BRIAN
  • BU Challenges
  • BU research
  • BU2025
  • Business Engagement
  • Centre for Excellence in Learning
  • Clinical Governance
  • Coffee Morning
  • conferences
  • COVID-19
  • data management
  • Delicious links
  • Doctoral College
  • ECR Network
  • EPSRC
  • ESRC
  • EU
  • Events
  • Featured
  • Featured academics
  • Festival of Learning
  • Friday profile
  • Funding opportunities
  • Fusion
  • Fusion Investment Fund
  • Fusion themes
  • Global engagement
  • Grants Academy
  • Guidance
  • hate crime
  • HE-BCI
  • HEIF
  • HSS Our 9 Research Entities
  • humanities
  • Impact
  • Industry collaboration
  • Info Days
  • innovation
  • international
  • Knowledge Exchange
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team
  • Knowledge Transfer
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnership
  • mrc
  • News from the PVC
  • nhs
  • NHS
  • open accecss
  • open access
  • parliament
  • Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
  • PG research
  • policy
  • Post-award
  • Postgraduate Research
  • pre-award
  • Public engagement
  • Publishing
  • R & KE Operations
  • REF 2029 impact case studies
  • REF Subjects
  • REF2029
  • Research assessment
  • Research Centres
  • Research communication
  • Research Concordat
  • Research Ethics
  • Research Ethics Panels
  • research governance
  • Research Integritiy
  • research integrity
  • research methods
  • Research news
  • research opportunities
  • research staff
  • Research Supervision
  • Research themes
  • Research Training
  • RKE development framework
  • staff profile pages
  • Strategic Investment Areas
  • Student Engagement
  • student research
  • the conversation
  • Training
  • UKRI
  • Uncategorized
  • Vitae
  • Women's Academic Network
  • writing
  • Twitter

© Bournemouth University 2025. All rights reserved.

  • Charitable status
  • Website privacy & cookies
  • Copyright and terms of use