Page 198 - SAMRC AnnualReport 2025-26

The South African Population Research
Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN)

SAPRIN continued to strengthen South Africa’s its seventh HDSS node, the Bafokeng Health and
population science infrastructure by expanding Demographic Surveillance System (BAMMISHO),
longitudinal health and demographic surveillance in the Bojanala district of the North-West province.
systems (HDSSs), releasing nationally significant Baseline surveillance activities commenced in
datasets, and promoting collaborative research October 2025 following extensive preparatory work.
to guide health and social policies. SAPRIN’s The expansion addresses geographical gaps in
initiatives addressed the need for reliable, long- longitudinal population surveillance and enhances
term population-based data to better understand SAPRIN’s ability to generate representative evidence
changing health, social, and demographic trends in from diverse rural and urban communities. The
under-resourced communities across South Africa. increased surveillance capacity is expected to
improve understanding of disease burden, migration
A major milestone during the reporting period was
the release of the SAPRIN Individual Surveillance patterns, socioeconomic conditions, and health
Episodes 2025 Datasets. These datasets provide outcomes in underserved populations, thereby
longitudinal population data covering the period supporting more equitable and evidence-based
from 1 January 1993 to 31 December 2024 across health and social interventions.
four HDSS nodes: Agincourt, DIMAMO, AHRI, and Another strategic initiative during the reporting
the urban GRT-INSPIRED node. The inclusion of period was the launch of the SAPRIN Strategic Plan
data from SAPRIN’s first urban HDSS node marked 2025–2030. The strategic plan established a long-
a significant advancement in understanding urban
health and demographic transitions. The datasets term framework for strengthening the network’s
capture evolving population dynamics across national research infrastructure and promoting
entire surveillance populations rather than sampled equitable health and social wellbeing through
groups, thereby offering robust evidence for longitudinal population science. The strategy
epidemiological, demographic, and public health reinforces SAPRIN’s role in generating high-quality
research. By making the datasets publicly accessible evidence to support public health decision-making,
through the SAPRIN data repository, the network policy development, and national data calibration
enhanced research accessibility and enabled initiatives.
scientists and students to perform analyses that can
inform health interventions, planning, and policy SAPRIN advanced knowledge exchange and
development at a national level. scientific collaboration through its Annual SAPRIN
Conference held in July 2025 under the theme
SAPRIN also made significant progress in expanding “Advancing Health and Social Well-being through
its national surveillance infrastructure by establishing Population Science.” The conference created a

SAPRIN Map. Annual SAPRIN Conference.

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