Investigating Community Concerns Regarding HIV Prevention Organizations' Expertise in Serving HIV-Vulnerable...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Disparities
• Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

Background:

• Cultural differences between patients and providers create barriers to HIV/AIDS care and prevention.
• Vulnerable populations face exacerbated challenges due to societal marginalization.
• Community stakeholders identified incongruencies between HIV-vulnerable populations' needs and local providers' expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and validate HIV stakeholders' perceptions of challenges in providing HIV services.
• To assess the alignment between HIV prevention organizations' (HPOs) services and their expertise with vulnerable populations.

Main Methods:

• A sequential mixed-methods study design was employed.
• Thirty HIV prevention organizations (HPOs) were surveyed regarding their expertise and services for 15 HIV-vulnerable populations.
• Frequency analysis compared HPO expertise with the populations they serve.

Main Results:

• Over 50% of HPOs served 13 out of 15 HIV-vulnerable populations.
• However, only 2 of these 13 populations were served with high expertise by more than half of the surveyed HPOs.

Conclusions:

• Study findings support concerns about a mismatch between the populations served by HPOs and their specialized expertise.
• This misalliance may negatively influence HIV prevention outcomes for vulnerable populations.
• Addressing expertise gaps is crucial for improving HIV service delivery.