Social determinants of health and self-rated health status: A comparison between women with HIV and women without HIV from the general population in Canada

Abstract

Background Women living with HIV (WLWH) continue to experience poorer outcomes across the HIV care cascade and overall health, an appreciable proportion of which may not be disease-related but due to socio-structural barriers that impact health. We compared socio-structural determinants of health and self-rated health between WLWH and expected general population values. Methods Prevalences of socio-structural determinants and self-rated health were estimated from 1,422 WLWH aged 16+ in the 2013–2015 Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS). Prevalences were also estimated from 46,831 general population women (assumed HIV-negative) in the 2013–2014 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), standardized to the age/ethnoracial group distribution of WLWH. Standardized prevalence differences (SPDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported. Results Compared to general population women, a higher proportion of WLWH reported annual personal income