Women are the faster-growing population in the U.S. being infected with HIV, yet they are the most impoverished, most understudied, and least served. Sero-positive women succumb to AIDS sooner than men because they are diagnosed later for women requires in-depth understanding of their everyday lives and health needs. This proposal is for an in-depth longitudinal qualitative study that will follow HIV-infected women from urban and rural Wisconsin through multiple data collection points over a 24 month period.
The specific aims are to: 1) Examine the meaning and impact of HIV/AIDS in the experiences and symptom management strategies. 3) Explore personal and contextual factors that influence HIV- infected women's capacity to reduce risky sexual and substance use behaviors. 5) Analyze participants' accounts of using health care, drug treatment, and social services, identifying how structural and interpersonal factors in care delivery and social welfare symptoms support or hinder HIV-infected women in accessing resources. Methods include baseline which 9 interviews will be conducted over the subsequent 24 months. A multi-stage narrative analysis will be the primary analytic approach. A variety of data reduction, data display, and interactive techniques will be applied to the data. Long-term goals are to: a) extend knowledge about health-related experiences of HIV-infected women, the complex obstacles they face,, the capacities they bring, and the resources and support they need; b) contribute to recognition of the perceptions, motivations, and strengths of these women so that health care and social services can be planned from a capacity-building perspective that takes into account real-life situations of HIV-infected women; and c) build a foundation of qualitative understanding to inform interventions aimed at secondary prevention of HIV transmission to children, sex partners, and drug use associates of HIV-infected women.
