Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2366 - The Enigma of Stigma | ||||
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Session: 35.2: The Enigma of Stigma (Symposium) on Thursday @ 14.30-16.00 in C104 Chaired by Danuta Kasprzyk, Jeffrey Fisher Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Leickness Simbayi - HSRC, South Africa |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: Stigma against people living with HIV (PLHIV) remains one of the central barriers to effective prevention, treatment and care of HIV in Africa. In particular, external stigma against PLHIV manifests itself in various ways including their ostracism from social events or in social places. The purpose of this study was to measure self-reported external stigma experienced by PLHIV in 18 pre-ed districts (two per province) of South Africa using the PLHIV Stigma Index questionnaire. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Interviews of 10 473 PLHIV, 65.4% of them females and 34.6% males, who were linked to either support group networks of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of PLHIV or attending health facilities and NGOs for the purposes of accessing support or care related to HIV and AIDS were conducted face-to-face by trained PLHIV over 13 weeks, from the 2nd week of September 2014 until the 2nd week of December 2014. A composite score of external stigma was developed using 4 items in the questionnaire (Cronbach a = 0.786). | ||||
| Results / Comments: Overall, it was found that over one third of the respondents (35.5%) experienced some external stigma. Cross-tabulations between the overall external stigma score and the various socio-demographic variables showed the following significantly associations: sex of the respondent (p < 0.001), age of respondent (p < 0.001), length of time living with HIV-positive diagnosis (p < 0.05), relationship status (p < 0.001), highest level of education completed (p < 0.001), cost of living (p < 0.001), locality type or residential status (p < 0.001), food security or hunger (p < 0.01), employment status (p < 0.001), and province (p < 0.001). | ||||
| Discussion: It was concluded that PLHIV in South Africa has moderate levels of external stigma which forms layers over existing forms of social inequalities such as gender inequality, age of PLHIV, food insecurity, poverty, poor education, residence and province, as well as being associated with the duration of living with HIV-positive diagnosis. Therefore, it is recommended that some structural, social and behavioural intervention programmes be developed and implemented throughout South Africa in order to help reduce external stigma against PLHIV throughout South Africa. | ||||
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