Kenny Chee (2021)

Research Report: Kenny Chee (2021)

Who are you?

My name is Kenny, I have had the privilege to join the first-ever Investigaytors program in Winnipeg coordinated by Chris Campbell and Jared Star in 2020. I am a first-generation immigrant to Canada from Malaysia, I arrived in the Treaty 1 land (Winnipeg) in 2012 as an international student studying Psychology at the University of Manitoba. I then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology in 2017. I started working in the community in different capacities, from a support worker for adults with intellectual disabilities to a case manager for youth and young adults who are facing employment barriers. I currently reside in  Waterloo, Ontario to pursue my Master’s degree in Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. I am currently involved in Social Inclusion and Health Equity Lab (SIHE; under the supervision of Dr. Todd Coleman). My current research interests involve examining the well-being of LGBT2SQ+ racialized youth through empowerment and intersectionality lens. I also have interests in epidemiology and biostatistics. 

My vision of advocacy work for marginalized communities is through research and education. Community-based research is an effective way to disseminate our research knowledge to the community, including policymakers, non-profit organizations, the general public. Hence, I started to get involved with community research (away from conventional psychological research) to get a sense of how research is conducted with community samples. I started my community research work by becoming one of the committee advisory members for the Manitoba 2SGBQ+ Men’s Health Study led by Dr. Rusty Souleymanov. After the committee work, I had the opportunity to participate in the Investigaytor program where we learned about community-based research through Dr. Souleymanov’s study. 

What is your research question?

Previous research has shown that those who are experiencing homelessness are less likely to receive equitable healthcare than those who are not experiencing homelessness, including getting HIV and STIs testing. Moreover, those who are experiencing homelessness might be sex workers, hence they are likely to engage in sexual activities that impose a higher risk of contracting HIV and STIs. Hence, my research questions encompass how accessible HIV and STIs testing for people who are experiencing homelessness, and what harm reduction strategies that people who are experiencing homelessness utilize to decrease the risk of HIV and STIs. 

Why I picked this research question?

I have been working with marginalized youth at an agency in the inner city of Winnipeg called Resource Assistance for Youth. Some youths who are accessing services from RaY are currently experiencing homelessness, hence I am particularly passionate about the advocacy for people who are experiencing homelessness to have equitable access to healthcare services. 

Moreover, I am also interested in health equity among those who are marginalized. How has the structural barriers and discrimination in healthcare settings prevent those marginalized from accessing healthcare supports? For example, transgender folks are reluctant to visit doctor offices because of the likelihood of them encountering transphobia from nurses or doctors.             

What do the results say?

A series of the chi-squared test had been conducted. The first chi-squared test analyzed HIV testing among the participants who are experiencing homelessness. The analysis showed that participants who are experiencing homelessness are more likely to get tested for HIV than those who are not homeless, X2 (1, N = 344) = 3.163, p = .075. Similarly, chi-squared test also showed that participants who are experiencing homelessness are more likely to report more frequent testing for HIV than those who are not experiencing homelessness, mainly every 3 months and every 6 months, X2 (1, N = 266) = 37.068, p > .001.

We did a similar chi-square analysis on the participants who are experiencing homelessness and whether they get tested for STIs. Similar to HIV testing, participants who reported experiencing homelessness are more likely to get STIs testing than those who are not experiencing homelessness X2 (1, N = 345) = 5.566, p = .018. Although people who are not experiencing homelessness are more likely to report that they get tested for STIs in the past 3 months than people who are experiencing homelessness, the latter group is more likely to report getting tested for STIs 4 to 6 months ago. X2 (1, N = 257) = 24.548, p > .001.  

We then examined the harm reduction strategies that people who are experiencing homelessness utilized. Surprisingly, those who are experiencing homelessness are more likely than those who are not experiencing homelessness to use PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) before sex to prevent HIV transmission, X2 (1, N = 228) = 24.876, p > .001. The Chi-Square test indicated that the individuals who are not experiencing homelessness are more likely to be in a monogamous relationship than those who are experiencing homelessness X2 (1, N = 225) = 6.504, p > .001. Similarly, based on the Chi-Square analysis, the individuals who are experiencing homelessness reported that they are less likely to ask their sexual partners about their HIV status than individuals who are not experiencing homelessness X2 (1, N = 226) = 5.483, p > .001.

What are your reflections on the results?

To be frank, I am very surprised and relieved that those who are experiencing homelessness are able to access HIV and STIs testing easily and frequently, which is the total opposite of my hypothesis. Similarly, I am also surprised that individuals who are experiencing homelessness are more likely to use PrEP than those who are not experiencing homelessness. My speculation is that the majority of the homeless population is indigenous (unfortunately), and individuals who are indigenous are able to access free PrEP as part of their health benefits. Nonetheless, individuals who are experiencing homelessness are still engaging in some high-risk sexual activities, including having multiple sexual partners and not asking about their sexual partner’s HIV status before sex. However, the majority of the individuals who are experiencing homelessness are utilizing other tools to alleviate the risk of getting HIV and STIs, such as using condoms…