Marseille 2007
| Abstract #364 - HIV-related stigma in the UK: A qualitative investigation | ||||
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Session: 22.5: Stigma (Parallel) on Monday @ 16.30-18.30 in Auditorium/Overflow Chaired by Heather Worth, Osman Malik Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Peter Keogh - Sigma Research, United Kingdom |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: Research suggests that HIV-related stigma and discrimination adversely affects the mental and sexual health of people with HIV (PWHIV) and reduces service uptake. We conducted a qualitative study in order to investigate the contexts and effects of HIV-related stigma on three groups of PWHIV resident in the UK: heterosexual African men, heterosexual African women and gay and bisexual men. | ||||
| Method / Issue: 122 PWHIV (58 gay men; 33 heterosexual African women and 31 heterosexual African men) took part in 24 focus groups in 4 English cities. Groups were tape recorded, annotated and analysed by two researchers working independently. | ||||
| Results / Comments: African men and women with HIV experienced discrimination and stigma in three main settings: accessing services; via expatriate family and community; and from the White British population. Stigma varied by its source: for example, from expatriate community it was associated with promiscuity, proximity to death and failure to provide for dependants; from the wider population it centred on notions of asylum seeking, welfare benefit fraud and the capacity to infect them. Stigma had different effects for African woman and men and was related to country of origin and tribe. Gay men reported less discrimination and stigma. Stigma was associated with reduced sexual desirability, reduced earning capacity and welfare benefits dependancy. Gay migrants from Latin America experienced stigma similar to Africans. Strategies to combat stigma depended on group solidarity and the individual being open about having HIV. Although stigma fostered networks of mutual support, there was little mutual understanding between gay men and African people with HIV. Among Africans, antagonisms existed between men and women and between different nationalities and tribes. | ||||
| Discussion: HIV stigma is dependent on other forms of stigma associated with race, sexuality, gender & class. Capacity to resist stigma is influenced by personal and social capital in the individual. African people resident in the UK experience increased stigma and have less capacity to resist it. Interventions to combat stigma require different treatments for people with HIV and the wider population. For people with HIV they should concentrate on increasing the social capital of individuals with HIV. | ||||
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