Information Visualizations to Enhance HIV-related Communication

HIV disproportionately affects Latinos who have more infections, faster disease progression, more HIV-related deaths, and slower diagnosis and treatment than their white/majority counterparts. This is a concern across the United States (US) and in developing countries, such as the Dominican Republic (DR). The HIV-related health disparities experienced by Latinos are made worse when those living with HIV have low health literacy and difficulty understanding the information they need to manage their health. The PI developed a set of images to assist clinicians in providing information to Latino people living with HIV (PLWH). These images have been put into a mobile health app so clinicians can easily access them during clinic visits. The PI has tested her with PLWH in the DR and in New York City. So, the next steps in this research are to ensure the images are relevant and useful to Latinos across the United States (US) and to further assess if, and to what extent, the images can improve health outcomes among PLWH in the US and in the DR. We will therefore, adapt images to Latinos of Mexican origin/descent and then test them to determine if these images help clinicians provide information to patients by conducting a study at clinical sites in the US and in the DR.