Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale.
HIV/AIDS related stigma is a major barrier to uptake of HIV testing and counselling (HTC). We assessed the extent of stigmatising attitudes expressed by participants offered community-based HTC, and their anticipated stigma from others to assess relationship with HIV test uptake. From these data, we...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3202579?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818130092481576960 |
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| author | Peter MacPherson Emily L Webb Augustine T Choko Nicola Desmond Kondwani Chavula Sue Napierala Mavedzenge Simon D Makombe Treza Chunda S Bertel Squire Elizabeth L Corbett |
| author_facet | Peter MacPherson Emily L Webb Augustine T Choko Nicola Desmond Kondwani Chavula Sue Napierala Mavedzenge Simon D Makombe Treza Chunda S Bertel Squire Elizabeth L Corbett |
| author_sort | Peter MacPherson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | HIV/AIDS related stigma is a major barrier to uptake of HIV testing and counselling (HTC). We assessed the extent of stigmatising attitudes expressed by participants offered community-based HTC, and their anticipated stigma from others to assess relationship with HIV test uptake. From these data, we constructed a brief stigma scale for use around the time of HIV testing.Adult members of 60 households in urban Blantyre, Malawi, were selected using population-weighted random cluster sampling and offered HTC with the option to self-test before confirmatory HTC. Prior to HTC a 15-item HIV stigma questionnaire was administered. We used association testing and principal components analysis (PCA) to construct a scale measure of stigma. Of 226 adults invited to participate, 216 (95.6%) completed questionnaires and 198/216 (91.7%) opted to undergo HTC (all self-tested). Stigmatising attitudes were uncommon, but anticipated stigma was common, especially fearing verbal abuse (22%) or being abandoned by their partner (11%). Three questions showed little association or consistency with the remaining 12 stigma questions and were not included in the final scale. For the 12-question final scale, Cronbach's alpha was 0.75. Level of stigma was not associated with previously having tested for HIV (p = 0.318) or agreeing to HTC (p = 0.379), but was associated with expressed worry about being or becoming HIV infected (p = 0.003).Anticipated stigma prior to HTC was common among both men and women. However, the high uptake of HTC suggests that this did not translate into reluctance to accept community-based testing. We constructed a brief scale to measure stigma at the time of HIV testing that could rapidly identify individuals requiring additional support following diagnosis and monitor the impact of increasing availability of community-based HTC on prevalence of stigma. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:59:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-67196e311e344a49a333e503f723f9e3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:59:33Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-67196e311e344a49a333e503f723f9e32022-12-22T01:15:10ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-01610e2681410.1371/journal.pone.0026814Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale.Peter MacPhersonEmily L WebbAugustine T ChokoNicola DesmondKondwani ChavulaSue Napierala MavedzengeSimon D MakombeTreza ChundaS Bertel SquireElizabeth L CorbettHIV/AIDS related stigma is a major barrier to uptake of HIV testing and counselling (HTC). We assessed the extent of stigmatising attitudes expressed by participants offered community-based HTC, and their anticipated stigma from others to assess relationship with HIV test uptake. From these data, we constructed a brief stigma scale for use around the time of HIV testing.Adult members of 60 households in urban Blantyre, Malawi, were selected using population-weighted random cluster sampling and offered HTC with the option to self-test before confirmatory HTC. Prior to HTC a 15-item HIV stigma questionnaire was administered. We used association testing and principal components analysis (PCA) to construct a scale measure of stigma. Of 226 adults invited to participate, 216 (95.6%) completed questionnaires and 198/216 (91.7%) opted to undergo HTC (all self-tested). Stigmatising attitudes were uncommon, but anticipated stigma was common, especially fearing verbal abuse (22%) or being abandoned by their partner (11%). Three questions showed little association or consistency with the remaining 12 stigma questions and were not included in the final scale. For the 12-question final scale, Cronbach's alpha was 0.75. Level of stigma was not associated with previously having tested for HIV (p = 0.318) or agreeing to HTC (p = 0.379), but was associated with expressed worry about being or becoming HIV infected (p = 0.003).Anticipated stigma prior to HTC was common among both men and women. However, the high uptake of HTC suggests that this did not translate into reluctance to accept community-based testing. We constructed a brief scale to measure stigma at the time of HIV testing that could rapidly identify individuals requiring additional support following diagnosis and monitor the impact of increasing availability of community-based HTC on prevalence of stigma.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3202579?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Peter MacPherson Emily L Webb Augustine T Choko Nicola Desmond Kondwani Chavula Sue Napierala Mavedzenge Simon D Makombe Treza Chunda S Bertel Squire Elizabeth L Corbett Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. PLoS ONE |
| title | Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. |
| title_full | Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. |
| title_fullStr | Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. |
| title_short | Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. |
| title_sort | stigmatising attitudes among people offered home based hiv testing and counselling in blantyre malawi construction and analysis of a stigma scale |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3202579?pdf=render |
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