Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2368 - Internalised and externalised stigma | ||||
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Session: 55.3: Internalised and externalised stigma (Oral poster discussion) on Friday @ 12.30-13.30 in Poster room 1 Chaired by Poul Rohleder, Yan Guo 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. Internalized stigma (or self-stigma) is said to be harsher than external stigma and its effects are very devastating to PLHIV if it remains unresolved. The purpose of this study was to measure self-reported feelings of internalised 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 7 items in the questionnaire (Cronbach a = 0.871). | ||||
| Results / Comments: Overall, it was found that 43.0% of the respondents reported that they had some experiences of feeling some internalised stigma. Cross-tabulations between the overall feelings of internalised stigma score and the various socio-demographic variables showed the following to be significantly associated: age of respondent (p < 0.001), length of time living with HIV-positive diagnosis (p < 0.001), relationship status (p < 0.001), highest level of education completed (p < 0.001), cost of living (p < 0.01), locality type or residential status (p < 0.001), food security or hunger (p < 0.001), and province (p < 0.001). | ||||
| Discussion: It was concluded that PLHIV in South Africa has moderately high levels of feelings of internalised stigma which forms layers over existing forms of social inequalities such as age of PLHIV, poor education, poverty, residence, and province, as well as being associated with the duration of living with HIV-positive diagnosis. Therefore, it is recommended that some social and behavioural intervention programmes be developed and implemented in order to help reduce feelings of internalised stigma among PLHIV throughout South Africa. | ||||
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