About CHIWOS

CHIWOS began as a desire to address a gap in knowledge related to women and HIV in Canada from the perspective of these women. It grew into a movement that is felt years after the study has finished data collection.

Mission

To create new knowledge that will be used to support women living with HIV in Canada to achieve optimal health and well-being, meaningfully involving women living with HIV in every stage of the research process and providing a safe, innovative, and transformational research environment.

Vision

A country where all women living with HIV are able to achieve optimal health and well-being, no matter where they are in their experiences of HIV or in their lives.

Mandate

To assess, through excellence in women-specific community-based research, the barriers to and facilitators of women-specific HIV/AIDS service use and the impact of of those barriers and facilitators on the sexual, reproductive, mental, and other health outcomes of women living with HIV across Canada.

Guiding Frameworks

The CHIWOS Study operated from 8 key frameworks, outlined below.

All study staff were trained on these frameworks using training materials available here.

What is Anti-Oppression?

An approach that involves recognizing and mitigating various forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, ableism, and others, to create more inclusive and equitable research practices.

Study Objectives

01

Assess the proportion, distribution and patterns of use and uptake of women-centred HIV care, and factors associated with service uptake among women living with HIV in Canada.

02

Estimate the effect of women-centred HIV care uptake on the overall HIV, women's, mental, and sexual and reproductive health outcomes of women living with HIV in Canada.