Marseille 2007
| Abstract #395 - Social and economic hardship among people living with HIV in London | ||||
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Session: 42.4: Wellbeing and quality of life (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 16.30-18.30 in Auditorium/Overflow Chaired by Anna Liguori, Richard Harding Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Jonathan Elford - City University London, United Kingdom |
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| Additional Authors: Prof Jonathan Elford, Ms Fowzia Ibrahim, Dr Cecilia Bukutu, Dr Jane Anderson, | ||||
| Aim: In the UK, the two groups most affected by HIV are gay men (mostly white) and black African heterosexual men and women. This paper examines the social and economic circumstances of people living with diagnosed HIV in London, paying particular attention to differences between gay men on the one hand and black African heterosexual men and women on the other. | ||||
| Method / Issue: The majority of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK receive their clinical care in NHS outpatient clinics. Consequently an NHS clinic sample is broadly representative of all those living with diagnosed HIV. Patients with HIV infection attending NHS outpatient clinics in north east London between June 2004-June 2005 were invited to participate in the study; those who agreed to participate completed a confidential, self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire sought information on a number of socio-economic variables including ethnicity, sexual orientation, employment, income, education, immigration status and housing. | ||||
| Results / Comments: During the study period, 2680 patients with HIV attended the outpatient clinics in the six participating hospitals of whom 2299 were eligible for the study and 1687 completed a questionnaire (response rate 73% of eligible patients, 63% of all patients). Of the 1687 respondents (median age 38 years), 480 were black African heterosexual women, 224 black African heterosexual men and 758 gay or bisexual men (646 white, 112 ethnic minority). The overall level of education was high with only small differences between the groups; 68.8% of gay men, 64.4% of African men and 60.9% of African women had some form of higher education (p=0.02). More than half (56.9%) the gay men (white and ethnic minority) were employed at the time of the survey compared with 45.4% of the black African men and 35.3% of the black African women (p<0.001). In answer to the question Do you have enough money to cover your basic needs?, 40.2% of black African men and women said No, compared with 22.9% of ethnic minority and 9.6% of white gay men (p<0.001). Black African respondents were less likely to own their home than ethnic minority or white gay men (7.7%, 18.9%, 38.5% respectively, p<0.001). Only 2.0% of black African heterosexual men and women were born in the UK compared with 36.8% of ethnic minority gay men and 78.0% of white gay men. As a consequence, nearly half the black African men and women (48.6%) had insecure immigration status in the UK (eg they were seeking asylum or had the right to stay for a limited time only) compared with 19.0% of the ethnic minority gay men and 1.6% of the white gay men (p<0.001) | ||||
| Discussion: In this study of people living with diagnosed HIV in London, black African heterosexual men and women consistently reported greater social and economic hardship than gay men, despite having similar levels of education. Our findings provide further evidence that HIV in the UK is increasingly characterised by poverty, particularly among migrant and ethnic minority populations. Tackling poverty among people living with diagnosed HIV in the UK should be given priority. | ||||
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