A Qualitative investigation of patients' transitional states of engagement in HIV-related medical care
Abstract
This qualitative study was designed to investigate the factors related to engagement in HIV-related medical care and specifically periods that can be characterized as transitions in and out of care. Data were collected through person-level interviews followed by thematic coding and analysis. The sample consisted of 22
participants recruited from the Truman Medical Center Infectious Disease Clinic and the Kansas City Free Health Clinic. Six main themes were identified as factors related to engagement: health factors, treatment factors, personal factors, support factors, clinic factors, and resources, each of these consisting of subthemes that describe the issues more specifically. The results were analyzed in the context of how they relate to the phases of engagement on the HIV continuum of care with specific examples from the interviewees. Results were then compared to an existing framework and were found to support many previous findings and indicate the need for evaluation of funding allocation, as well as changes at the health care system and policy levels. Additional work will be done to further establish validity of the findings for development of a framework to describe the complexity of factors that need to be accounted for when developing efforts designed to support better engagement in care
Table of Contents
Abstract -- List of illustrations -- List of tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Review of the literature -- Methods -- Results -- Discussion -- Appendix -- Reference list
Degree
M. S.