Md. Tareque is a professor and researcher based at the University of Rajshahi (Bangladesh), whose overall goals are to identify the protective as well as risk factors of healthy ageing around the world, with a particular emphasis on low- and middle-income countries. Through his research, Md. Tareque has been investigating numerous potential factors (e.g., active ageing index, vision and hearing impairment, loneliness, self-reported health, gender difference, exercise behaviour, diseases, sufficiency of income, elder abuse, urban-rural difference, etc.) that are positively or negatively associated with healthy ageing (e.g., life expectancy with or without disability, hypertension, limitation in physical function and in activities of daily living, etc.).
Md. Tareque has been working in the field of gerontology since 2009, but most recently he has been researching the impact of loneliness on healthy and unhealthy life expectancy among older adults. Loneliness has only recently started to attract attention as a critical social and public health issue to address particularly for older people, with the United Kingdom establishing a Ministerial lead on loneliness in 2018, and Japan appointing a ‘Minister of Loneliness’ in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the need to conduct more research into the causes, impacts, and strategies to reduce loneliness.
Md. Tareque’s most recent study which quantified the impact of loneliness on health expectancy among older adults in Singapore is the only study to date that has quantified the impact of loneliness on total life expectancy and health expectancy (the duration of remaining life lived in different health states) among older adults, aged ≥60 years. Overall, Md. Tareque’s work is an exemplar of the essential role robust and timely research continues to play in advancing the goals of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, and points to the importance of supporting research conducted in less-resourced contexts.