Abstract
While there is a growing body of literature on Black people’s access to HIV services in Canada, the question of how this access varies across Canada’s urban jurisdictions has hitherto never arisen in research and policy. This paper assesses HIV healthcare needs among heterosexual Black men in four Ontario cities of Windsor, London, Toronto and Ottawa. Multivariate results show that heterosexual Black men in Windsor (OR = 3.2; p < .01), London (OR = 2.5; p < .05), and Toronto (OR = 2.2; p < .05) were significantly more likely to experience difficulties getting HIV healthcare compared with those living in the nation’s capital—Ottawa. Also, experiences of discrimination (OR = 1.08; p < .001), not having a family doctor (OR = 1.7; p < .01) and difficulty with the English language (OR = 2.4; p < .01) predicted higher odds of difficulty accessing HIV health needs. These findings suggest that contextually sensitive policies within Canadian cities are needed to help marginalized populations meet their healthcare needs.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethical approval
And ethics was granted by the Non-medical Research Ethics Boards of the Non-Medical Research Ethics boards of Ryerson University, University of Windsor, University of Ottawa and Western University and each site rigorously adhered to the protocols.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.