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Elsevier

Morbidity Prevention in Aging

The Role of Salutogenesis Amidst Crises

  • 1st Edition - December 1, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Editors: Nestor Asiamah, Hafiz T.A. Khan, Whitney Nesser, Evelyn Alvarez
  • Language: English

Morbidity Prevention in Aging: The Role of Salutogenesis Amidst Crises addresses the urgent need to rethink disease prevention strategies for an aging population. The book begins… Read more

Description

Morbidity Prevention in Aging: The Role of Salutogenesis Amidst Crises addresses the urgent need to rethink disease prevention strategies for an aging population. The book begins by exploring how age-friendly environments support health-seeking behaviors. The next section focuses on developing personal skills such as resilience and self-efficacy for maintaining health during crises. Section III examines the reorientation of health services to support preventive care, including community care and diet promotion, while Section IV addresses the creation of policies that facilitate health-promoting interventions and integrate prevention strategies. Community engagement and empowerment in promoting health is emphasized in the fifth section.

The book concludes by providing a framework for understanding disease prevention amidst crises, focusing on diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic experiences and ensuring equitable opportunities for lifelong disease prevention. This groundbreaking book emphasizes a salutogenic approach that focuses on factors promoting health rather than merely treating diseases. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how to maintain health and prevent diseases across the lifespan, even amidst challenges such as wars, climate change, and industrial hazards.

Key features

  • Offers multidisciplinary perspectives and insights from medicine, sociology, and architecture, addressing varied cultural and socioeconomic needs
  • Provides research-based chapters that follow STROBE guidelines, ensuring high-quality, reproducible data for informed decision-making
  • Includes innovative research methods, aiding in the design of robust studies on disease prevention amidst crises
  • Addresses aging dynamics across marginalized communities, different religious groups, and varied income levels, thus promoting inclusive health strategies

Readership

Researchers, academics and students in the fields of gerontology/aging and geriatrics

Table of contents

1. Morbidity prevention in aging: an introduction
Nestor Asiamah, Hafiz T.A. Khan, Whitney Nesser, Evelyn Alvarez
Section I: Age-friendly Environments and Healthy Aging

2. Preventive morbidity in aging: policy guide for the Integrated Model of Positive Aging Amidst Climate Threats
Nestor Asiamah, André Hajek, Hafiz T.A. Khan, Alex Siu Wing Chan, Happy Griffiths Njoekpume

3. Frailty and active ageing in place: a review of the supportive role of social networks
Snorri Bjorn Rafnsson, Romnalin Keanjoom, Asri Maharani, Gindo Tampubolon

4. From Disruption to Appraisal in Transitional Built Environments: Perceived Safety Accessibility Responsiveness Framework for Psychosocial Adaptation
Nana Benyi Ansah, Samuel Ntiamoah, Isaac Aidoo, Justice Agbevade

5. Neighborhood social networks for active aging: a typology and theoretical positioning
Nestor Asiamah, Amar Kaneka, Emelia Danquah
Section II: Reorienting Health Services for Healthy Aging

6. Disease prevention during climate change: a salutogenic perspective on pro-health behavior
Nestor Asiamah, Hafiz T.A. Khan, André Hajek, Assaf Suberry, Snorri Bjorn Rafnsson, Whitney Nesser, Emelia Danquah

7. Preventive healthcare during climate change: impacts and the way forward
Bilkis Banu

8. Social work’s role in lifespan health promotion during the climate crisis: a call to action
Özge Kutlu, Sevinç Sütlü, Mehmet Öçal

9. Impacts of wildfires on older adults’ health: implications for morbidity prevention during climate change
Naciely Hernandez, Evelyn Alvarez

10. Preventing falls among older adults during crises
Reza Nemati-Vakilabad
Section III: Role of Health-Promoting Activities in Adaptive Aging

11. Assessment of health promotion services available to older adults and the interventions of social workers in sustaining them in Nigeria
Blessing Ngowari Ramsey-Soroghaye, Uzoma Odera Okoye

12. Unexpected joy and inspired fellowship following war: Shared experience through intergenerational musical communitas
Assaf Suberry, Whitney Nesser

13. Maladaptive aging through the lens of the climate-driven suicidal continuum and strategies for risk reduction
Nestor Asiamah, Edgar Ramos Vieira, Andrew Kweku Conduah, Nana Benyi Ansah, Sanatu Mustapha Alidu, Janvier Gasana

14. Climate change and aging: disease prevention, impacts, and policy
Rika Yuliwulandari, Zulfan Febriawan, Debrina Kusuma Devi, Aulia Fahira

15. Volunteering during crises: sustaining opportunities and impact on healthy aging
Harun Aslan
Section IV: Healthy Aging in Vulnerable Groups and Contexts

16. Growing up in poverty and with multimorbidity in America, Britain, China, Europe, and Indonesia
Gindo Tampubolon

17. Impacts of wildfires on older adults’ volunteering engagement: considerations for future wildfire resiliency planning
Evelyn Alvarez

18. Salutogenic approaches to ageing in low-resource settings: insights from Ghana as a case study
Andrew Kweku Conduah, Mary Naana Essiaw

19. A scoping review of mental health and health care interventions for people living with HIV in Asia: implications for healthy ageing during crises
Alex Siu Wing Chan, Rayner Kay Jin Tan, Nestor Asiamah, Florence Wong, Phoenix Kit Han Mo

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: December 1, 2026
  • Language: English

About the editors

NA

Nestor Asiamah

Nestor Asiamah, PhD, FHEA, is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) and Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex, United Kingdom. He also lectures at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences and Berlin School of Business and Innovation in Germany. As the Executive Director and Founding Fellow at the Africa Centre for Epidemiology, he leads several international research groups. Nestor reviews for top journals like The Lancet and serves as an academic editor for journals such as Social Sciences & Humanities Open, BMC Public Health, and PLoS ONE. He is a Medical Research Council grant reviewer and has consulted for the NHS in the UK. Nestor convenes the International Sustainable Ageing Research Group (ISARG), a global network dedicated to healthy aging research and advocacy, and mentors doctoral and postdoctoral researchers worldwide.

Affiliations and expertise
Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research, School of Health and Social Care, University or Essex, UK

HK

Hafiz T.A. Khan

Hafiz T.A. Khan, PhD MSc, FHEA, FRSPH, CStat is a Professor of Public Health and Statistics at the University of West London (UWL). Before joining UWL, he was a Reader in Statistics at Birmingham City University, UK. With over 30 years of experience, he transitioned from statistician to specializing in public health. He teaches modules on Public Health, Demography and Aging Society, statistics, and quantitative methods, and provides statistical consultancy services within the university. His research focuses on healthy aging, co-morbidity in later life, and long-term care for the elderly. He supervises PhD students in public health, demography, and gerontology. Professor Khan has co-authored two books, "Research Methods for Business and Social Science" (Sage, 2007 and 2014). He is a Chartered Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, and a member of the academic advisory panel of the UK Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.

Affiliations and expertise
Professor, Public Health and Statistics, University of West London, USA

WN

Whitney Nesser

Whitney Nesser, PhD, MBA, MCHES is a Professor and Gerontology Program Director in the Department of Applied Clinical and Educational Sciences at Indiana State University. Her primary focus is on research and teaching about quality of life, aging, and intergenerationology. Her PhD is in Health Education and Promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Affiliations and expertise
Professor and Gerontology Program Director, Department of Applied Clinical and Educational Sciences, Indiana State University, USA

EA

Evelyn Alvarez

Dr. Evelyn Alvarez, PhD, MPH, is an environmental health professor and geospatial scientist at California State University, Los Angeles specializing in web-based and smartphone environmental community science applications and wearable technology to promote environmental justice and build healthy communities. Her research also investigates the nexus between sustainable aging and green spaces, and resilience-building strategies in response to pandemics and climate change. She earned her PhD in environmental health science from UCLA, focusing on hospital environments, copper antimicrobial surfaces, and hospital-acquired infections, and her MPH in environmental health sciences from Columbia University. Dr. Alvarez's research interests include underrepresented narratives in climate change and sustainable living. Her mentees received the 2020 APHA Student Champions for Climate Justice award for an environmental justice project on campus. She has contributed significantly to advancing environmental health and justice through her innovative research and mentorship.
Affiliations and expertise
Environmental Health Scientist and Professor, California State University, Los Angeles, USA