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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Health Policy and Management
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2024.1444575

"We need to talk about it, test it, prevent it, and that is our job": qualitative report on the awareness of primary care physicians regarding HIV in Ukraine

Provisionally accepted
Yulia Kvasnevska Yulia Kvasnevska 1Mariia Faustova Mariia Faustova 2*Kseniia Voronova Kseniia Voronova 1Yaroslav Basarab Yaroslav Basarab 1Yaroslava Lopatina Yaroslava Lopatina 1
  • 1 AIDS Healthcare Foundation (Ukraine), Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 2 Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Department, Poltava State Medical University, Poltava, Ukraine

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Approximately 240000 people in Ukraine are living with HIV. Recent changes in medical legislation have significantly strengthened the role of family doctors and primary care pediatricians in the prevention, early detection and follow-up of patients with HIV. Thus, the purpose of the study was to examine the experience of primary care physicians in testing and providing care to patients with HIV.Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with typical representatives of the target audience from different regions of Ukraine were conducted. Inductive thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data upon standardized research protocols using the Theoretical Domain System. The results identify knowledge, skills, motivation, barriers, and opportunities in the context of HIV testing among family doctors in Ukraine. Primary health care providers consider HIV testing of patients to be an important part of their professional activities. In most cases, HIV testing is initiated upon detection of clinical indicators or when a person is identified as a key population. Preventive testing at the request of the patient is less common.Although most family doctors believe that they are sufficiently informed to conduct testing, there is a certain knowledge gap regarding communication with the patient and further treatment in case of a positive HIV result.The main obstacle to regular HIV testing is the reluctance and resistance of patients, as well as in some cases insufficient or non-existent tests in primary health care facilities. In order to improve the situation with HIV testing among the population, family doctors believe that it is necessary to organize regular trainings and courses to improve the skills of doctors on HIV, provide primary health care facilities with sufficient tests and establish high-quality information support.The obtained results clearly outline the main problems that concern family doctors in Ukraine regarding work with key vulnerable groups and persons living with HIV.

    Keywords: HIV1, primary care2, healthcare system3, HIV testing4, prevention of HIV5

    Received: 05 Jun 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kvasnevska, Faustova, Voronova, Basarab and Lopatina. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mariia Faustova, Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Department, Poltava State Medical University, Poltava, Ukraine

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.