“If I have to drive 100 miles, I’ll drive 100 miles to get it”: a qualitative exploration of HIV care travel behavior

ABSTRACT

Alabama 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.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• travel
• focus groups
• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
• US South

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences Interdisciplinary Team Award: [Grant Number N/A].