HEARD invites you to a seminar; Social networks, social influence and HIV risk behaviour in KwaZulu-Natal youth by Dr Guy Harling, a Sir Henry Dale Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Health (IGH) at University College London.

About the seminar: Social connections are vital sources of information and influence relating to sexual risk and protective behaviour. Understanding who provides what advice to young sexually active people may allow researchers to develop interventions that efficiently change behaviour in high-incidence settings. In his presentation, Dr Harling will provide evidence from a 2015 pilot study in uMkhanyakude district showing who young people discuss sexual health with and how this is associated with sexual behaviour. He will then briefly outline an upcoming cohort study that will use social network analysis to evaluate community-wide spread of ideas and behaviours relating to HIV risk.

About the speaker: Dr Harling’s research focuses on the social determinants of infectious diseases, mainly on HIV and mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. He works increasingly on the impact of social networks on behaviour and health outcomes, much of it at the Africa Health Research Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where he is adjunct faculty.

He was previously a postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he worked with Till Bärnighausen, Jukka-Pekka Onnela and Victor De Gruttola. He remains affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. As part of his ongoing work with the HAALSI aging cohort he is now also affiliated with the MRC/Wits Agincourt Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit.

Seminar details

Title: Social networks, social influence and HIV risk behaviour in KwaZulu-Natal youth.

Date: Wednesday 21 August 2019

Time: 10h00

Venue: HEARD, J Block, 4th Floor, Westville Campus, UKZN

Click here to RSVP

 

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