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Traditional healer treatment of HIV persists in the era of ART: a mixed methods study from rural South Africa

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, August 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (95th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (97th percentile)

Mentioned by

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6 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
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3 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
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1 Google+ user

Citations

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29 Dimensions

Readers on

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91 Mendeley
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Title
Traditional healer treatment of HIV persists in the era of ART: a mixed methods study from rural South Africa
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, August 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12906-017-1934-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Carolyn M. Audet, Sizzy Ngobeni, Ryan G. Wagner

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) substantially contributes to the burden of disease and health care provision in sub-Saharan Africa, where traditional healers play a major role in care, due to both their accessibility and acceptability. In rural, northeastern South Africa, people living with HIV often ping-pong between traditional healers and allopathic providers. We conducted 27 in-depth interviews and 133 surveys with a random sample of traditional healers living in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, where anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is publicly available, to learn: (1) healer perspectives about which HIV patients they choose to treat; (2) the type of treatment offered; (3) outcomes expected, and; (4) the cost of delivering treatment. Healers were mostly female (77%), older (median: 58.0 years; interquartile range [IQR]: 50-67), with low levels of formal education (median: 3.7 years; IQR: 3.2-4.2). Thirty-nine healers (30%) reported being able to cure HIV in an adult patients whose (CD4) count was >350cells/mm(3). If an HIV-infected patient preferred traditional treatment, healers differentiated two categories of known HIV-infected patients, CD4+ cell counts <350 or ≥350 cells/mm(3). Patients with low CD4 counts were routinely referred back to the health facility. Healers who reported offering/performing a traditional cure for HIV had practiced for less time (mean = 16.9 vs. 22.8 years; p = 0.03), treated more patients (mean 8.7 vs. 4.8 per month; p = 0.03), and had lower levels of education (mean = 2.8 vs. 4.1 years; p = 0.017) when compared to healers who reported not treating HIV-infected patients. Healers charged a median of 92 USD to treat patients with HIV. Traditional healers referred suspected HIV-infected patients to standard allopathic care, yet continued to treat HIV-infected patients with higher CD4 counts. A greater emphasis on patient education and healer engagement is warranted.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 91 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 91 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 15 16%
Researcher 12 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 11%
Student > Bachelor 9 10%
Student > Postgraduate 6 7%
Other 14 15%
Unknown 25 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 14 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 14 15%
Social Sciences 8 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 6 7%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4 4%
Other 17 19%
Unknown 28 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 56. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 March 2021.
All research outputs
#646,092
of 22,999,744 outputs
Outputs from BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
#84
of 3,641 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#14,930
of 315,743 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
#3
of 106 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,999,744 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,641 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 315,743 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 106 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.