"If I have to drive 100 miles, I'll drive 100 miles to get it": a qualitative exploration of HIV care travel behavior.

ABSTRACTAlabama depends heavily on Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) funding, yet patient enrollment at one large, RWHAP-funded, academically-affiliated HIV clinic in Alabama has steadily increased each year, with approximately 20% bypassing more proximal RWHAP clinics. To understand reasons why patients travel long distances and bypass closer clinics to receive care, we conducted eight focus groups over Zoom, each containing between 2-3 participants (n = 18) and applied thematic analysis to code the data. Primary themes included: (1) Reasons for Traveling Long Distances to Receive HIV Medical Care, (2) Experiences with HIV Medical Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and (3) Travel Challenges. Some participants were attracted by the clinic's one-stop-shop model, while others eschewed local clinics to avoid status disclosure. An overarching travel challenge was lack of transportation, yet most participants favored in-person appointments over telehealth despite driving long distances. Future research should explore patient attitudes towards telehealth in greater depth.

Community-engaged Processes for Restarting Federally Funded Research in a Community-based Organization during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Birmingham AIDS Outreach (BAO) is one of three study sites partnering with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (Pitt Public Health) for a National Institutes of Health-funded randomized controlled trial on a financial management intervention for people with HIV who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability. After the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020, the study team used a community-engaged approach to adapt research protocols at this site. We sought to describe a community-engaged approach to restarting National Institutes of Health-funded research during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Partners at Pitt Public Health and BAO developed a set of agency-wide COVID-19 policies and procedures for BAO organized around Rhodes' critical elements of community engagement. CONCLUSIONS: The challenges presented by COVID-19 in the research sector have provided an opportunity to reevaluate study activities and increase the extent to which research is conducted in a community-centered manner.