1. Discussing reproductive goals with healthcare providers among women living with HIV in Canada: the role of provider gender and patient comfort
- Author
-
Lashanda Skerritt, Alexandra de Pokomandy, Nadia O’Brien, Nadia Sourial, Ann N Burchell, Gillian Bartlett, Tibor Schuster, Danielle Rouleau, Karène Proulx-Boucher, Neora Pick, Deborah Money, Rebecca Gormley, Allison Carter, Mark H Yudin, Mona Loutfy, Angela Kaida, and CHIWOS Research Team
- Subjects
Male ,Canada ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Health Personnel ,CHIWOS ,Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ,HIV Infections ,medicine.disease_cause ,patient comfort ,Cohort Studies ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,5. Gender equality ,medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,reproductive health ,Patient comfort ,Reproductive health ,family planning services ,HQ1-2044 ,030505 public health ,business.industry ,Transmission (medicine) ,HIV ,Obstetrics and Gynecology ,Diseases of the genitourinary system. Urology ,3. Good health ,Reproductive Medicine ,Relative risk ,Family medicine ,The family. Marriage. Woman ,Survey data collection ,Female ,RC870-923 ,women ,pre-conception care ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Goals ,Healthcare providers ,Research Article ,Cohort study - Abstract
Antiretroviral therapy effectively prevents sexual and vertical transmission of HIV. Yet, some women living with HIV report having unmet needs for reproductive health care. This study measured the prevalence of women discussing reproductive goals with any current healthcare provider and assessed the effect of the current HIV care provider’s gender on such discussions and whether comfort was a mediator. We analysed baseline and 18-month survey data from 533 women living with HIV enrolled in the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) (2013–2017), a community-based participatory study, restricting the analysis to participants aged 16–45 years. We used causal mediation analysis to estimate direct and indirect effects of the gender of one’s HIV care provider on reproductive discussions, incorporating mediating and interaction effects of women having any provider with whom they felt comfortable discussing reproductive goals. Between the baseline and 18-month follow-up surveys, 34.3% (183/533) of women discussed their reproductive goals with a healthcare provider. Having a woman HIV care provider was associated with a 1.18 excess relative risk (ERR) of discussion (95%CI: 0.15, 2.20). The mediating effect of comfort was primarily explained by the fact that those participants with women providers felt more comfortable discussing their reproductive goals compared to participants with men providers, accounting for 66% (95%CI: 32%, 99%) of the total effect. Findings support that HIV provider gender affects women’s comfort and whether they discuss reproductive goals, which must be acknowledged and addressed in care delivery.
- Published
- 2021