Developing a Community-Based Research agenda to address unmet needs in the context of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
Immigrants and refugees experience unique challenges navigating accessing services for the prevention and detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) and associated diseases. There is a need continue to understand the pathways that shape access to these services, including tackling stigma, gaps in health literacy, and cultural and social norms, while situating these pathways within the socio-political and health-system context in Ontario and Canada.
The outcomes from this project have the potential to further build on Access Alliance’s work on HPV among newcomer populations, including decreasing potential barriers to accessing HPV knowledge, vaccination, and prevention services.
This project builds on Access Alliance’s priority interest in HPV research among newcomers. A previous project, partnered with the Women’s College Hospital, used implementation science research to design culturally appropriate HPV screening programs with communities.
Project overview and goals
The project brings together academics and community leaders practicing community-based participatory research within a community health centre serving immigrants and refugees, including individuals with precarious immigration or health insurance status, in Toronto and across Ontario. Access Alliance, along with two AIDS service organizations serving immigrants and refugees affected by HIV (Community Alliance for Accessible Treatment, and the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention will work with researchers to develop a community-based participatory research plan to determine and begin addressing the social and structural enablers and barriers in prevention and care of immigrants and refugees at risk of HPV and HPV-associated diseases, including those living with HIV, a population disproportionately affected by HPV.
Core project goals include:
- building capacity and advance community-based participatory HPV research that values a broader set of knowledge paradigms and empowers peer researchers and community scholars with lived experience shaped by migration to be at the forefront of the research process.
- building research collaborations between community partners and academics governed by the principles of community-based participatory research.
- developing research questions and research methods centred on the social and structural pathways that shape the health of immigrants and refugees affected by HPV.
Why it matters
Studies in Canada have found a disproportionate burden of HIV and STBBIs among immigrants and refugees, a population that now accounts for 23% of residents nationally and 30% in Ontario. Immigrants and refugees are also known to experience substantial disparities in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening. Recent studies have also reported increased vaccine distrust and lower vaccine acceptance among some immigrant and refugee communities resulting from misinformation spread during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In our own previous research, most newcomer/immigrant women identified that stigma of sexual health topics from members of their communities, family, religious groups and social circles often caused participants to be discouraged to speak about seeking regular screening.
The combination of inequities and decreased vaccine trust comes from a combination of social and structural factors faced by newcomers, such as difficulties navigating the healthcare system, barriers to accessing culturally appropriate healthcare services, lack of vaccine confidence, financial and educational barriers, stigma, systemic and interpersonal racism, social isolation, language barriers, and barriers shaping knowledge and awareness around HPV.
By working closely alongside communities and people with lived experience, this project will seek to address social and structural pathways to health and improve the knowledge, prevention, and detection of HPV and HPV-associated diseases among newcomer communities.
The greatest strength of our community-based research approach is that we have and will continue to engage with community leaders from the outset of the research process. We will continue to bring community leaders to the forefront to ensure planning and research question development is driven by those with lived experience, allowing for the most meaningful and impactful research to be conducted.
Related Access Alliance activities
Addressing Cervical Cancer Screening Inequity among Newcomer Women via HPV Self-Sampling
This research project sought to build evidence on community-based and culturally sensitive care pathways for promoting HPV self-sampling-based screening for cervical cancer among under/never-screened women within immigrant communities.
Opening doors for cancer screening in a downtown priority neighbourhood
This project will co-create equity-oriented cancer screening engagement strategies that address hesitancy for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening. We seek to close the gaps encountered in the community by bringing together service planners and health and social services around the needs of the community, as they have identified, to address screening hesitancy and develop engagement and outreach strategies that are responsive to their needs.