The Helping Networks of Transgender Women Living with HIV

Transgender women living with HIV face significant barriers to healthcare that may be best addressed through community-centered interventions holistically focused on their HIV-related, gender-related, and other important needs. Community health ambassador (CHA) interventions (education and training programs designed to engage communities and community leaders in health promotion) may be an effective option, though information about the natural helping networks of this vulnerable population is too limited to inform the implementation of this approach. This study uses social network analysis to describe the natural helping networks of transgender women living with HIV, their help-seeking patterns for HIV-related, gender-related, and ancillary resources, and the characteristics of potential network ambassadors. From February to August 2019, transgender women living with HIV in the US (N = 231) participated a 30-min online survey asking them to describe their natural helping networks (N = 1054). On average, participants were embedded within natural helping networks consisting of 4-5 people. They were more likely to seek help from informal network members vs. formal service providers (p < .01), and from chosen family and partners/spouses (p < .05) above other social connections. Older network members (p < .01), other transgender women (p < .05), and those with whom they regularly engaged face-to-face (p < .01) (vs. social technology) were identified as potential network ambassadors for HIV-, gender-related, and other important issues. These findings suggest an opportunity to develop CHA interventions that leverage existing help networks and potential network ambassadors to promote equitable access to HIV, gender-affirming, and other crucial resources among this medically underserved group.