New study finds previously incarcerated women with HIV less likely to adhere to HIV treatment

The British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BCCfE) has released new research that finds previously incarcerated women with HIV are three times more likely to have poor adherence to combination anti-retroviral therapy than HIV positive women who have not been incarcerated.

Simon Fraser University Health Sciences professor and principal investigator of the study at the BCCfE, Angela Kaida, presented the findings at the 21st International AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa.

The research comes from a survey conducted by Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual & Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), Canada’s largest multi-site community-based cohort study, with 1,425 women living with HIV enrolled in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

Key findings from the study include that 30 per cent of study participants had been incarcerated with six per cent having been incarcerated in the past year. Recently incarcerated women with HIV were three times as likely to be lower income and live in unstable housing than women who had never been incarcerated.

“This research shows the urgent need for programming that provides women with the necessary health and social supports following incarceration,” says Hogg.

Access and adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy, the standard for HIV treatment, is critical for both individual health and HIV prevention efforts.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below

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