Modeling perceptions of social location and decision-making to develop targeted messaging promoting HIV care engagement and ART adherence among women living with HIV in the South

Women living with HIV (WLWH) in the South have the lowest rates of viral suppression among women in all regions in the United States (US). To date, HIV care engagement and antiretroviral (ART) adherence interventions aimed at decreasing viral suppression disparities for WLWH in the South are few in number and have failed to consider the women's diverse social locations. Social location, a key concept in intersectional frameworks, refers broadly to contextual factors and the position people occupy in a social hierarchy based on their intersecting identities and social determinants of health like gender-, race/ethnic-, and class inequities; geographic location; and HIV-related stigma. Guided by an intersectional framework, the overall objective of this application is to develop targeted HIV care engagement and ART adherence messaging for WLWH from diverse social locations in the South. Specifically, this project is to be implemented in rural and non-rural regions of North Carolina, one of the nine southern states that continues to drive the US epidemic and has a substantial percentage (46%) of people most impacted by HIV living outside large urban areas.

Scholars @ ECU