HIV prevention risks for Black women in Canada

Charmaine C. Williams, Peter A. Newman, Izumi Sakamoto and Notisha A. Massaquoi

Social Science & Medicine, 2009, vol. 68, issue 1, 12-20

Abstract: The future availability of HIV vaccines can increase options available to Canadian Black women for risk reduction. However, current conceptual frameworks do not adequately address barriers to HIV prevention for this population, and may be inadequate to address challenges with vaccines. This study explored knowledge and attitudes regarding HIV vaccines and associated prevention methods to inform appropriate conceptual frameworks for their dissemination to Canadian Black women. We completed four 90-min focus groups with women (n = 26) of African or Caribbean origins, and six interviews with key informants providing health and social services in the Black communities of Toronto. The participants suggested that there were significant risks associated with seeking prevention information and attempting to reduce exposure to HIV infection. They described individual, familial, community and institutional domains of risk and predicted the same spectrum of risk for HIV vaccines. Participants advocated for education, empowerment and institutional change to create a supportive environment for vaccines and other HIV prevention methods. They further indicated that preparation for vaccine dissemination will need to prioritize building trust between women of the Black communities and institutions in the research, health and government sectors.

Keywords: Canada; HIV/AIDS; Prevention; Vaccines; Black; women; Trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00504-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:1:p:12-20

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().