Co‑creation of innovative health solutions for mobile men with comorbidities in Uganda and Zambia (HIMM)

In Uganda and Zambia, men face a high burden of infectious diseases, higher mortality from non-communicable diseases and a lower use of health care than women. For men whose livelihood depends on travel and stays outside their usual place of residence, mobility makes it more difficult for them to receive diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, which is crucial for managing comorbidities.

The HIMM project investigates the comorbidity of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases among men living in urban areas and border towns, but whose livelihoods are based on mobility between different places.

We investigate which livelihood assets are used at different locations along men's mobility trajectories to better understand health risks and strategies for health care and disease management. By using ethnographic, epidemiological and health science methods, the project will generate knowledge about men's mobility patterns, health risks and access to care.

This knowledge will form the basis for the co-creation, together with the men themselves, of a mobility-adapted intervention aimed at improving access to screening, care and treatment of men with comorbidities between infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases. The intervention will then be tested in a feasibility study.

The innovative nature of the project lies in conducting research "in motion", together with an under-explored mobile population, as well as in bridging formal and informal health systems to improve men's access to care.

The project group consists of epidemiologists, medical anthropologists and geographers.