How Does Cultural Competence Apply to HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention?
From Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Care ACTION: Improving HIV/AIDS Care in a Changing Environment, August 2002, Mitigating Health Disparities Through Cultural Competence: The recent Institute of Medicine report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care states that “racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive a lower quality of health care than nonminorities, even when access-related factors, such as patients’ insurance status and income, are taken into account.”7 These findings and others like them are not news to people concerned with the care of individuals living with HIV disease. Study after study has demonstrated unequal access to care and poorer health outcomes among certain segments of the HIV-positive population. For example, analysis of data from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study revealed that compared with nonminorities, women and African Americans with HIV disease who are receiving care are less likely to rec
