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AIDS Service Organization Access Among African, Caribbean and Other Black Residents of an Average Canadian City

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Abstract

Due to heightened vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities are priority groups for prevention and intervention services in Canada. However, it is not clear which factors may affect ACB communities’ access to these services. We evaluated access to the local AIDS service organization (ASO) in Middlesex-London by using data from the Black, African and Caribbean Canadian Health Study. Modified Poisson regression was used to obtain prevalence risk ratios for factors associated with three measures of access: familiarity with the ASO, willingness to access, and realized access. In adjusted analyses, older ACB community members were more likely to be familiar with the ASO, willing to access it, and have actually gone there. Canadian-born participants were less likely to have been to the ASO than recent immigrants. These results have implications for reaching specific segments of ACB communities for HIV/AIDS-related services in Canada.

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Acknowledgments

Soraya Blot is now a research coordinator with the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario. The BLACCH Study was funded by The Ontario HIV Treatment Network. Soraya Blot was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. The authors wish to acknowledge all of the members of the BLACCH Study Team, including Shamara Baidoobonso, the lead principal investigator of this study, for their contributions to the design and conduct of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Soraya Blot & Greta Bauer

  2. Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Greta Bauer

  3. Regional HIV/AIDS Connection, London, ON, Canada

    Meredith Fraser, Mercy Nleya & Mbaka Wadham

  4. African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mercy Nleya

  5. Women and HIV/AIDS Initiative, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mbaka Wadham

Authors
  1. Soraya Blot
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  2. Greta Bauer
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  3. Meredith Fraser
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  4. Mercy Nleya
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  5. Mbaka Wadham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soraya Blot.

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Blot, S., Bauer, G., Fraser, M. et al. AIDS Service Organization Access Among African, Caribbean and Other Black Residents of an Average Canadian City. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 851–860 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0359-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0359-5

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