Objective To learn the health services accessibility of people living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) and its influencing factors in Shanghai, and to provide suggestions for further interventions.
Methods In-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions were conducted for data collection of 50 PHA and 46 relative personnel including policy makers, services providers, etc. N-Vivo 8.0 was used for coding and data analysis.
Results The insufficiency of health services accessibility of PHA in Shanghai was mainly the long distance between each district and the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, as shown in the average distance of 69.0 km with the average travel time of 62 min. The prominent problems due to the only designated service agency were limited service capability, lack of high active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) drugs and poor accessibility to HAART drugs for the migrants. PHA showed economic unaffordability of AIDS related health services.
Conclusion The health services accessibility of PHA in Shanghai is not so optimistic, and their burden of health care acquisition is heavy. It is urgent to improve PHA health services accessibility as well as clinical care in Shanghai.
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