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Sexual Health, HIV All East Research Group (SHARE)
  1. Sexual Health, HIV All East Research Group (SHARE)
  2. Research themes
  3. Driving optimal engagement with care to secure the best health outcomes for people living with HIV

Theme 2: Driving optimal engagement with care to secure the best health outcomes for people living with HIV

Members of the public walking along a road in east LondonOverview

A major challenge for ending the HIV epidemic is helping people who are living with HIV to get timely access to care and to stay engaged with care for the long-term (e.g., taking daily medication and regularly attending clinics).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical staff at Barts Health and other HIV clinical services across London observed that many people living with HIV who had previously disengaged from care were contacting them proactively to restart treatment. SHARE is investigating this change in behaviour as part of this research.

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan, Professor Chloe Orkin and Professor Jane Anderson are leading this research theme.

Activities

SHARE will explore the disruptive change brought about by COVID-19 on engagement in HIV care and use the lessons learnt to inform future interventions. This will include:

  • Conducting a mixed methods study across 10 selected London HIV clinics to investigate the barriers and enablers to engagement with HIV care from the perspective of service providers and service users. The selected HIV clinics will have a high proportion of service users from racially minoritised communities, who have been disproportionately affected by both HIV and COVID-19.
  • Using the findings from this research to inform future interventions that can support people to access and benefit from HIV care throughout their lives.
    Sharing our learnings with other health services that support people with other long-term conditions, especially those that affect disadvantaged communities.

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