The ACCESS cohort (AIDS Care Cohort to Evaluate Access to Survival Services) follows HIV-positive injection drug users based in the Greater Vancouver area, primarily in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The primary goal of the ACCESS cohort is to determine the health needs of HIV-positive injection drug users. As with all UHRI cohorts, participants complete an interviewer-administered questionnaire every six months and give blood samples for analysis. Data from the ACCESS cohort allow UHRI investigators to monitor HIV disease and identify how various policies or programs affect outcomes from HIV treatment. Aside from generating data to inform the delivery of HIV treatment services, a central objective of the UHRI research team is to connect study participants with HIV care and other services.
ACCESS follows HIV-positive injection drug users while its sister study VIDUS follows HIV-negative injection drug users. Splitting the original cohort in this way allows UHRI investigators to more effectively study HIV infection and disease progression among injection drug users in Vancouver, and to identify those programs and policies that are effective in reducing HIV and improving HIV treatment outcomes among this population.
ACCESS is an initiative of the Addiction and Urban Health Research Initiative
