Table 2.

Sample Questions from the Interview Guide

Theme	Corresponding Questions
Experiences with Trauma/Abuse	1. Sometimes things happen to people that are extremely upsetting-things like being in a life threatening situation like a major disaster, very serious accident or fire; being physically assaulted or raped; seeing another person killed or dead, or badly hurt, or hearing about something horrible that has happened to someone you are close to. We have, when doing the informed consent, discussed that you have had these kinds of experiences. What, specifically, have happened to you? 1b. How do you think the traumatic experiences you just shared affect how you care for yourself and your health now? Medication adherence?
Experiences with Racism - Interpersonal Level*	2. What about a time, in the past 12 months when another person was not nice to you, was disrespectful, or mistreated you because you are Black? Think about times when you were ignored, excluded, or avoided by people you know because of your race, or when you were treated with hostility or coldness, or people acted like you couldn’t be trusted. It could be someone you know well—like a friend or partner—, an acquaintance, or someone you don’t know or just met—like someone in a store or your neighborhood—or a coworker. It could also be a person at church. 2a. What happened? 2b. What did you do to cope? 2c. How do you think the racism you experience (/d) affect how you care for yourself and your health? Medication adherence?
Experiences with HIV Discrimination/Stigma - Institutional Level*	3. What about a time, in the past 12 months when you felt discriminated against by institutions or systems in society because you are HIV-positive? For example, in the past 12 months, have you felt mistreated by the police or law enforcement, at work or by an employer, in healthcare or by a healthcare provider, or at church? Were you ever treated poorly or made to feel inferior at any of these places or by any of these people? For example, were you denied a job or did you lose a job due to your HIV-status? Also, have you been denied housing or not been able to get a place to live because of your HIV-status? 3b. What happened? 3c. What did you do to cope? 3d. How do you think the HIV discrimination/stigma you experience (/d) affect how you care for yourself and your health? Medication adherence?
Experiences with Gender Roles Expectations	4. As a woman do you think they are certain ways that others expect you to behave? Others such as family, friends, peers, partners, children, other. 4a. Expectations around: Communication? Maintaining relationships? Putting others’ needs ahead of your own? 4b. How do you think these expectations and relationships affect how you care for yourself and your health? Medication adherence?
Experiences with Medication Adherence	5. How long have you been prescribed HIV medications (i.e. ART)? 5a. What are things that make it easier to adhere (keep taking) to your medications on time? 5b. What are things that make it hard to adhere (keep taking) to your medications on time?
Thoughts on Proposed Intervention	6. “We are thinking of offering a program through [hospital name] in which we would provide individual sessions for Black women living with HIV, to discuss ways to improve medication adherence and cope with trauma, discrimination, and gender-related stress. The program would last about 10 weekly sessions, and it would include discussions about similar experiences, and take-home activities to help practice skills you learn in the program” What are your initial thoughts about such a program? Would you be interested in attending this kind of a program? Why or why not? Do you think other people living with HIV would be interested in attending such a program? Why or why not?
Suggestions for recruitment and retention	7. What do you think would make women willing to come to the program? What specific things should we do to make the program more attractive? How should we recruit women to come to the program? Online, in person, specific places? Why these methods and not others? 7a. What kind of person do you think would be the best facilitator for this program? How important is it that the person is a member of your community—that is, Black, female, etc.?

^*Note that questions on women’s experiences of racism and HIV-related discrimination/stigma were asked at both the interpersonal and institutional levels. These questions were adapted from Bogart, et al. (2016).