People living with lifelong conditions (including HIV) have been affected by disruptions to their diagnosis, treatment and care during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, face-to-face consultations have been adapted to take place over the phone and some people living with HIV mistakenly received government guidance advising them to shield at the start of lockdown.

We aim to explore COVID-19 experiences among people living with HIV as well as HIV clinical- and community-based workers and volunteers. This work has been in collaboration with Positively UK[1]

Our project has involved a number of stages and has generated several outputs:


 [1] Positively UK are a peer-led organisation that offers a holistic approach and specialised services to improve the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV.

A film by Imperial College London in collaboration with Positively UK, about participatory approaches in HIV research. Film-maker: Ed Rolfe.

Why Co-Production? Reflections from our study

A film by Imperial College London in collaboration with Positively UK, about participatory approaches in HIV research. Film-maker: Ed Rolfe.

Project Outputs

Project outputs

  • Peer Research Training Resource (2022) - Developed from the series of online training sessions used to induct and train peer researchers for this study. The resource is free to access and use.
  •  Poster at AIDS2022,  Experiences of the COVID-19 epidemic: a participatory qualitative study with people living and/or working with HIV in the UK  (available to view online here)
  • Co-designed and delivered a HIV Co-Production Showcase on our research findings to key stakeholders including interviewees in July 2022 which included a participatory activity to prioritise research findings

 

Project information

Full study title:

Experiences of COVID-19 Epidemic: a qualitative study of people living with, affected by, or working in HIV in the UK. 

Ethical approval:           
The study has gained ethical approval from the Research Governance and Integrity Team, Imperial College London. ICREC Reference: 20IC5893

Health/Social Care/Charity/Community Worker Participant Information Sheet:

Experiences of COVID-19 - Participant Information Sheet v1.4

People living with HIV  (Peer Interviews) Participant Information Sheet:

‌Experiences of COVID-19 - Participant Information Sheet v2.1

You may also wish to refer to our list of useful COVID-19 resources, advice and support for people living with HIV: Useful COVID-19 Resources for People Living with HIV

Funding acknowledgements:

  • Imperial College London Societal Engagement team – 2020 Rapid Response Seed Fund & Participatory Research Seed Fund
  • NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre
  • ESRC London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership


‌If you’re interested in finding out more about this work, please contact the study co-ordinator, Vas Papageorgiou (vasiliki.papageorgiou17@imperial.ac.uk

Please note - this work feeds into a larger doctoral research project (using the 2017 Positive Voices survey data) looking to explore the impact of social determinants (e.g. housing, employment, income etc.) on the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV. This doctoral research project is in collaboration with colleagues based in the HIV Section at the UK Health Security Agency (previously Public Health England).