Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Priority populations are populations at risk and are groups that benefit the most from healthy public policy. Resources should be allocated to prioritize addressing the issues that priority populations experience every day. Based on social determinants of health, such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status, and the burden of disease, the Ontario HIV Treatment Network recognizes five populations in Ontario as priority populations for HIV/AIDS: 1) at-risk women, including transwomen, women with multiple sex partners or partners with risky sexual behaviours, and sex workers; 2) African, Caribbean, and Black communities; 3) gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; 4) Indigenous communities; and 5) people who use drugs. Most people living with HIV in Ontario belong to one or more of these populations, and most new infections occur within these populations. To identify the most pressing issues affecting priority populations living with HIV in Ontario and to discuss the research evidence required to address these issues, the issues experienced by priority populations were thematically clustered and descriptively mapped through data visualization. Issues that are common across all priority populations, as well as issues that are specific to each priority population were qualitatively analyzed. All three priority populations were affected by: barriers to accessing HIV programs and services; social determinants of health associated with poverty; structural vulnerability; and problems with mental health and stigma. These thematic clusters of issues continue to expose priority populations to significantly higher risk of HIV/AIDS and lead to poorer population health outcomes.