Nothing about us without us: Community-based participatory research to improve HIV care for mobile patients in Kenya and Uganda

qualitative community-based participatory research

Population mobility is prevalent and complex in sub-Saharan Africa, and can disrupt HIV care and fuel onward transmission. The project is looking to fill a gap in research that focuses on the voices of mobile population needs and their input in designing care delivery models. The authors assessed the unmet needs of mobile populations and engaged mobile stakeholders in the design and implementation of service delivery to improve care outcomes for mobile people living with HIV (PLHIV).

The scholars took a participatory approach that included both the community members and researchers in all phases of the research process.The scholars held community discussions with mobile community stakeholders in their regions. Mobile community members gave verbal consent to participate and to be recorded before the start of discussions. The discussions were recorded, transcribed. And translated into English. Mobile community stakeholder were able to vote to identify their preferred intervention options.

An improvement to HIV care for mobile communities in Kenya and Uganda by working with all significant stakeholders to identify and eradicate all barriers to a healthy and stigma-free life.

In this study, mobile health cards were strongly supported by Kenyan communities. The ability of the card to offer instant referrals and facilitate easier care access in multiple clinics was possibly recognized by these communities given its potential to address the transfer documentation challenges mobile patients often face” (P. 8).

“In contrast, Ugandan communities mostly desired a community-based health worker option, possibly to mitigate social support challenges and stigma-related issues mobile patients there face in the communities they travel to. This variability not only highlights the capacity of each community to generate solutions for its particular care needs but also the essential role each community can play in helping public health officials decide which interventions to deploy” (P. 8).

The article does not say how the results were shared with the mobile community members who participated in the research and other stakeholders.

“The findings reveal evidence of potential gaps in the health care system especially for mobile patients. It demonstrates that a one-size-fits-all approach is incompatible with mobile populations, who are hard to reach and often subjected to unpredictable movement timing.” (Maeri et al., 2023, p. 8)

Social Science
Medicine