Ryan G Wagner

Datos Biográficos

ID228499
NOMBRERyan G Wagner
NOMBRESRyan G
APELLIDOWagner
FIRMAWAGNER R G
AFILIACIONESUniversity of the Witwatersrand
ORCID0000-0003-2741-3676
VERIFICADOSí
TOTAL DE OBRAS44
TOTAL DE CITAS45
TOTAL COMO AUTOR44
TOTAL COMO EDITOR0
PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN2012
AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN2026
ÍNDICE H4

  • Episodic memory trajectories of older adults with and without HIV

    Open AccessMichaela Theilmann, Sarah Gao et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    With the introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART), life expectancy among people with HIV in South Africa has increased substantially. This ageing population faces age-related challenges, including cognitive decline. Yet, differences in cognitive trends between people with and without HIV remain poorly understood. We analyzed longitudinal data on 3,066 adults aged 40 + years in rural South Africa from the “Health and Aging in Africa: Longitu…

  • A scoping review to evaluate the efficacy of combining traditional healing and modern psychiatry in global mental healthcare

    Open AccessSagar Jilka, Catherine Winsper et al.ARTICLECambridge Prisms Global Mental…2025

    Traditional faith healers (TFHs) are often consulted for serious mental illness (SMIs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Involvement of TFHs in mental healthcare could provide an opportunity for early identification and intervention to reduce the mental health treatment gap in LMICs. The aim of this study was to identify models of collaboration between TFHs and biomedical professionals, determine the outcomes of these collaborative mod…

  • Prevalence and determinants of suicidal ideation among South African Health Sciences students at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open AccessSoraya Seedat, Samhaa Seedat et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Psychiatry2025

    The prevalence of suicidal ideation found in this study was higher than that found in the general South African adult population and highlights the need to further investigate and address student mental health, especially students in the field of Health Sciences. Interventions aimed at mitigating the determinants, including depression and anxiety, and promoting the development of protective factors such as resilience and social support may lead t…

  • Traditional Health Practitioners-Initiated HIV Testing and Counselling

    Open AccessJennifer Hove, Praise Mnisi et al.ARTICLEAIDS and Behavior2025

    A considerable proportion of people living with HIV remain unaware of their HIV status. In South Africa, individuals in rural areas often receive health care from both allopathic providers and traditional health practitioners (THPs). Our team piloted a task-shifting pilot study to determine the feasibility of THP-led HIV counselling and testing. Our team conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews with healthcare workers, THPs who completed…

  • A individually randomized controlled trial comparing Healer-led vs. clinician- led training to improve personal protective equipment use among traditional healers in South Africa

    Open AccessCarolyn M Audet, Tshegofatso Seabi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Like allopathic healthcare workers, healers are also exposed to patients’ blood and body fluids. A widespread practice is the traditional “injection,” in which the healer performs subcutaneous incisions to rub herbs directly into the bloodied skin, resulting in 1,500 blood exposures over their lifetime. We tested the impact of healer-led PPE training, staffed by trained traditional healers who reported using PPE during each risky clinical encount…

  • Mental distress, food insecurity and university student dropout during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020

    Open AccessFezile Wagner, Ryan G Wagner et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Psychiatry2024

    While acknowledging that various factors and complexities contribute to student dropout, the increased vulnerability to food insecurity and mental distress, stemming from issues such as widespread job losses and isolation experienced during the pandemic, may have also had an impact on dropout. This work reiterates the importance of directing additional support to students who are food insecure and those who are experiencing mental distress in ord…

  • Pulmonary tuberculosis vs. Tindzhaka and Mafularha

    Open AccessCarolyn M Audet, Tshegofatso Seabi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Although awareness of tuberculosis (TB) is high in South Africa, delays in TB testing or treatment persist. Even those with symptoms of TB often delay testing, with one study in Mpumalanga revealing a median allopathic care-seeking delay of four weeks. We sought to understand how traditional healers perceived TB symptoms among their patients, if they treated the disease, and what (if any) illnesses they defined as being traditional may have overl…

  • Exploratory validation of relationship functioning and non-pregnant partner behavior scales in pregnant people living with HIV in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

    Open AccessDaniel Sack, Tshegofatso Seabi et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2023

    Partner engagement in antenatal care can improve care for pregnant people living with HIV. However, concerns about engaging unsupportive non-pregnant partners warrant further study to avoid engaging partners who pressure their pregnant partner to refuse testing or treatment and/or perpetuate intimate partner violence. We adapted established relationship functioning and partner behaviour questionnaires among pregnant people living with HIV initiat…

  • The adolescent HIV executive function and drumming (Ahead) study, a feasibility trial of a group drumming intervention amongst adolescents with HIV

    Open AccessKirsten Rowe, Julia R Pozuelo et al.ARTICLEAIDS Care2023

    AHEAD feasibility trial assessed the feasibility and acceptability of an 8-session group drumming programme aiming to improve executive function, depression and anxiety symptoms, and perceived social support in adolescents living with HIV in a rural low-income South African setting. Sixty-eight 12- to 19-year-old adolescents participated. They were individually randomised. The intervention arm (n = 34) received weekly hour-long group drumming ses…

  • Subjective social position and cognitive function in a longitudinal cohort of older, rural South African adults, 2014–2019

    Open AccessLindsay C Kobayashi, E P Morris et al.ARTICLEJournal of Epidemiology and…2022Citada por: 2Referencias: 34

    Background The relationship between subjective social position (SSP) and cognitive ageing unclear, especially in low-income settings. We aimed to investigate the relationship between SSP and cognitive function over time among older adults in rural South Africa. Methods Data were from 3771 adults aged ≥40 in the population-representative ‘Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa’ from 2014/2015 (bas…

  • Estimating the burden of cardiovascular risk in community dwellers over 40 years old in South Africa, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Ghana

    Open AccessRyan G Wagner, Nigel J Crowther et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

    INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of these risk factors on future CVD outcomes and burden is poorly understood. We examined the magnitude of modifiable risk factors, estimated future CVD risk and compared results between three commonly used 10-year CVD risk factor algorithms and their variants in four African countries. METHODS: In the Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genom…

  • Pregnancy-related healthcare utilisation in Agincourt, South Africa, 1993–2018

    Open AccessDaniel Sack, Ryan G Wagner et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

    INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy-related health services, an important mediator of global health priorities, require robust health infrastructure. We described pregnancy-related healthcare utilisation among rural South African women from 1993 to 2018, a period of social, political and economic transition. METHODS: We included participants enrolled in the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, a pop…

  • Validation of Oxford Cognitive Screen

    Open AccessKirsten Rowe, Mihaela Duta et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of Psychology2021

    Short, reliable, easily administered executive function (EF) assessment tools are needed to measure EF in low‐ and middle‐income countries, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa given the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐associated neurocognitive disorder. We administered Oxford Cognitive Screen—Executive Function (OCS‐EF) to 932 rural South African females (mean age 19.7 years). OCS‐EF includes seven tasks: two hot inhibition tasks …

  • Healer-led vs. clinician-led training to improve personal protective equipment use among traditional healers in South Africa

    Open AccessCarolyn M Audet, Bryan E Shepherd et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    There are estimated two million traditional healers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with more than 10% (200,000) working in South Africa. Traditional healers in SSA are frequently exposed to bloodborne pathogens through the widespread practice of traditional 'injections', in which the healers perform dozens of subcutaneous incisions to rub herbs directly into the bloodied tissue with their hands. Healers who report exposure to patient blood have a 2…

  • Adolescents’ understanding of obesity

    Open AccessTshegofatso Seabi, Tshegofatso M Seabi et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    BACKGROUND: Levels of obesity are rising in South Africa, notably among adolescent females. Excessive energy-dense diets and physical inactivity are among the factors contributing to this increase. Given that these factors are largely behavioural, understanding young people's views of obesity can contribute to more targeted behavioural interventions. Yet little is known of how rural South African adolescents view obesity. OBJECTIVES: The aim of t…

  • Understanding non-communicable diseases

    Open AccessEilidh Cowan, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    Background: NCDs are non-infectious, long-term conditions that account for 40 million deaths per annum. 87% of premature NCD mortality occurs in low- and middle-income countries.Objective: The aims were:develop methods to provide integrated biosocial accounts of NCD mortality; and explore the practical utility of extended mortality data for the primary health care system.Methods: We drew on data from research programmes in the study area. Data we…

  • The relationship between executive function, risky behaviour and HIV in young women from the HPTN 068 study in rural South Africa

    Kirsten Rowe, Mihaela Duta et al.ARTICLEAIDS Care2021

    Executive function (EF) may predict sexual risk-taking and HIV risk in young women in rural South Africa. We tested associations between EF and seven risky behavioural outcomes: binge drinking, illicit substance use, unprotected vaginal sex, concurrent sexual relationships, transactional sex, herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection, and HIV infection. We compared EF in young women with HIV to matched controls. 1080 young women underwent cog…

  • Throwing the bones to diagnose HIV

    Carolyn M Audet, Elise M Clemens et al.ARTICLEAIDS Care2021

    In 2018, nearly 800,000 HIV positive individuals in South Africa were unaware of their status. Traditional healers see patients who avoid health clinics, including those who refuse HIV testing. This manuscript details the results of a qualitative study to understand traditional healer perspectives on performing healer-initiated HIV counseling and testing HIV in rural South Africa. We conducted 30 structured in-depth interviews between April and J…

  • Executive function in HIV-affected children and adolescents

    Kirsten Rowe, Ruta Buivydaite et al.ARTICLEAIDS Care2021

  • A cross-sectional study measuring contact patterns using diaries in an urban and a rural community in South Africa, 2018

    Open AccessJackie Kleynhans, Stefano Tempia et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2021

    Age played an important role in the number and duration of contact events, with children at the rural site having almost double the contact rate compared to the urban site. These contact rates can be utilized in mathematical models to assess transmission dynamics of infectious diseases in similar communities

  • Associations of Father and Adult Male Presence with First Pregnancy and HIV Infection

    Open AccessLisa Albert, Jessie K Edwards et al.ARTICLEAIDS and Behavior2021

  • Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans

    Open AccessMeagan T Farrell, Yusheng Jia et al.ARTICLEJournal of Aging and Health2021Referencias: 10

    Objectives: Our study investigates measurement, correlates, and functional associations of vision impairment (VI) in an aging population in rural South Africa. Methods: 1582 participants aged 40-69 reported on near (NVI) and distance vision impairment (DVI) and completed objective vision tests. Logistic and linear regression were used to evaluate sociodemographic, health, and psychosocial correlates of VI and assess relationships between VI and c…

  • Disparity in Educational Attainment Partially Explains Cognitive Gender Differences in Older Rural South Africans

    Open AccessMeagan T Farrell, Lindsay C Kobayashi et al.ARTICLEThe Journals of Gerontology…2020Citada por: 3Referencias: 7

    In this older South African cohort, gender inequality in cognitive performance was partially attributable to educational differences. Understanding biopsychosocial mechanisms that promote cognitive resilience in older women is critically important given the predominantly female composition of aging populations worldwide

  • Social contact, social support, and cognitive health in a population-based study of middle-aged and older men and women in rural South Africa

    Open AccessGuy Harling, Lindsay C Kobayashi et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2020Citada por: 6Referencias: 53

    The patterns we found suggest that cognitively impaired older adults in this setting rely on their core social networks for support, and that theories relating to social connectedness and cognitive function developed in higher-income and higher-education settings may also apply in lower-resource settings elsewhere

  • The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer on Multidimensional Deprivation of Young Women

    Open AccessKelly Kilburn, Lucia Ferrone et al.ARTICLESocial Indicators Research2020Citada por: 8Referencias: 62

    Despite the growing popularity of multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, its use to measure the impact of social protection programs remains scarce. Using primary data collected for the evaluation of HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 068, a randomized, conditional cash transfer intervention for young girls in South Africa that ran from 2011 to 2015, we construct an individual-level measure of multidimensional poverty, a major depar…