Factors Related to Youth Living with HIV Delaying Access to Care

The Role of Positive and Negative Social Network Influences on Health Seeking Behaviors

Abstract

To explore factors related to youths’ delay in seeking care after an HIV diagnosis. Multivariate analyses were performed on 347 participants who were selected from a sample of 351 adolescents participating in a 1994-1996 survey among youth in four U.S. metropolitan cities. Key findings were that participants with prosocial peer behaviors took longer (34 days) to seek care than youth with poorer social engagement and excessive fibbing delayed seeking care (23 days). Potentially important findings suggest being female, older, having close peer networks, conduct problems, and certain housing settings may delay seeking care. Multivariate regression analyses indicate that later entry into medical care was observed among those with close social networks and behavioral characteristics related to delinquency.