This proposed 12-month research project examines access to primary medical care for HIV+ African-Americans who are linked to health services through community-based case management. The broad, long-term objectives are to improve access to primary medical care for HIV+ African-Americans and to create a model for assessment of primary health care access that could be utilized in other urban African-American communities.
The specific aims are to document the disparity of primary health care access for African-Americans, identify socio-cultural reasons for the disparity, and recognized strategies for overcoming the identified barriers. New clients to three ethnically diverse community-based case management sites will be followed for the period of the research projects. Subjects will consist of African-American and Euro-American clients. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods will be used to compare primary health care access between the two groups. Research methods will include in- depth structured interviews, unstructured interviews, focus groups, participant observation and direct observation. This study will be conducted in an area that claims 1% of the nation's reported AIDS cases-- the greater Tampa metropolitan area. The epidemiology of AIDS in this geographic area mirrors that of the nation as a whole and other urban areas to such an extent that research results could be generalizable enough, allowing this project to serve a-- a model for other urban African-American communities.
