Parental preferences for immunization advisory clinic settings for children with special health care needs and associated factors in Shanghai: A cross-sectional study.

HIV screening is a critical component of prevention and early diagnosis, yet many US veterans experience barriers to routine testing []. Prior qualitative work in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) suggests that concerns about stigma, confidentiality, and access can influence whether veterans seek HIV testing or follow-up care []. At-home HIV self-testing (HIVST) offers a complementary strategy that can expand options for screening outside traditional clinic encounters and may be particularly acceptable for individuals who prefer privacy and convenience []. However, HIVST remains a relatively novel approach among veterans and in VHA settings, and research studies evaluating HIVST programs must communicate clearly what participation involves and what to do after testing. Published evaluations of HIVST in veteran populations and within VHA settings remain limited, with much of the HIVST evidence base focused on nonveteran populations and distribution models outside federal health systems [,]. In addition, while vending machine (VM) distribution of HIVST kits has been examined outside the United States in nonveteran populations and community-based settings, there is minimal published evidence on VM HIVST kit delivery for US veterans [,]. Veterans are an important population for low-barrier HIV screening because HIV prevention and testing needs may intersect with mental health conditions, substance use, housing instability, rural residence, transportation barriers, and concerns about confidentiality []. Although the VHA provides integrated HIV prevention and treatment services, prior work suggests that routine HIV testing can still be affected by patient-, clinician-, and system-level barriers [,]. For veterans who prefer privacy or are not reached during routine clinical encounters, VM-based HIVST may offer a complementary access point within Veterans Affairs (VA) and VA-partnered settings []. Given the relative novelty of HIVST, and particularly VM-based HIVST kit distribution in VHA settings, formative input from veteran advocates living with HIV can strengthen implementation readiness by ensuring that participant-facing materials are understandable, acceptable, and actionable [,]. Structured veteran feedback can identify unclear terminology, confusing participation pathways, overly dense content, or language that inadvertently increases stigma, and it can guide revisions that reduce burden and improve usability. Despite increasing interest in low-barrier HIVST kit distribution models, including VM distribution, few reports describe how veterans are engaged to refine recruitment, educational, and data collection methods before a program launch, limiting reproducibility and the ability to translate these approaches into other VHA settings.