Co-developing research priorities to address digital determinants of health among historically marginalized populations disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections

As society becomes increasingly digital, some people are getting left behind because they may lack access or skills to use the internet or may not trust it. The effects of these “digital determinants” of health (DDoH) may be particularly hard for communities that are already historically marginalized in British Columbia, including those with higher rates of sexually-transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI). This topic has not received a lot of attention in STBBI related research, even as related health services are increasingly “digital-first,” and has only in the past year become a topic important to public health leaders in BC. Through this project we hope to understand this issue better. We will start by holding focus groups with people from these communities (e.g., people with lived experience of incarceration, people living with HIV) and representatives from the community organizations that serve them. From these discussions, we hope to better understand how DDoH affect their lives and how services are provided. We will then review these findings with peers, community organizations, and researchers in a two-day workshop to identify important research questions that will be the focus of future grant applications.