Ai Koyanagi

Ai Koyanagi

Fundació per la Recerca i la Docència Sant Joan de Déu

Life & Medical Sciences

I am a medical doctor with training in psychiatry, general medicine, gastroenterology, and tropical medicine. I obtained my Master’s degree in Tropical Medicine from the University of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK (2003) and my PhD in International Health (Global Disease Epidemiology and Control) from Johns Hopkins University, USA (2008). My interest in multi-country research stems from my international background that has included living in the USA, Niger, Zimbabwe, Peru, Ecuador, and several countries in Europe, as well as visiting nearly 130 countries worldwide. I have authored or co-authored more than 600 peer-reviewed articles indexed in PubMed, and have also been the first author of papers in high impact factor journals such as the Lancet. I had been selected highly cited researcher 2022.

Research interests

I am interested in learning about health determinants and how they vary by geography. In particular, mental disorders and their comorbidity with physical disorders are my primary interest given my clinical experience as a physician and psychiatrist. Most of my research has focused on multi-country epidemiological studies examining the modifiable risk factors of a range of mental and physical disorders with high burden at the population level using large nationally representative datasets predominantly from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). More recently, I have been involved in research on the physical and mental health impacts of COVID infection or the COVID pandemic.

Selected publications

- Smith L, Shin JI, López Sánchez GF, et al. 2022, 'Social participation and mild cognitive impairment in low- and middle-income countries', Preventive Medicine, 164, 107230.

- Smith L, Shin JI, Butler L, et al.  2022, 'Physical multimorbidity and depression: A mediation analysis of influential factors among 34,129 adults aged ≥50 years from low- and middle-income countries', Depression And Anxiety, 39, 376-386.

- Koyanagi A, Oh H, DeVylder J, et al. 2022, 'Psychotic experiences among informal caregivers: findings from 48 low- and middle-income countries', Social Psychiatry And Psychiatric Epidemiology, 57, 9, 1771 - 1780.

- Felez-Nobrega M, Haro JM, Koyanagi A 2022, 'Multimorbidity, depression with anxiety symptoms, and decrements in health in 47 low- and middle-income countries', Journal Of Affective Disorders, 317, 176 - 184.

- López-Bueno R, Andersen LL, Koyanagi A, et al.  2022, 'Thresholds of handgrip strength for all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality: A systematic review with dose-response meta-analysis', Ageing Research Reviews, 82, 101778.

- GBD 2019 Adolescent Young Adult Cancer Collaborators 2022, 'The global burden of adolescent and young adult cancer in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019' Lancet Oncology, 23(1), 27-52.