Stigmatizing attitudes in community towards people living with hiv/aids: a cross-sectional

Stigma related to AIDS was one of the real purposes behind its uncontained obliteration of millions in India. Individuals were hesitant to interface with HIV/AIDS people since it was thought to be infectious, executing malady which had no cure.

To measure the level of community stigma towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and to find out the associated demographic factors for stigma.

A community-based, cross-sectional analytic study was conducted in Surat among 350 participants over a period of three months. The surveys included several aspects of stigma, such as: negative attitudes and blame towards PLWHA due to their diagnosis and their perceived HIV/AIDS risk behaviour; perceived risk of HIV infection due to casual contact with PLWHA; social distancing from PLWHA and groups at higher risk of HIV/AIDS. These questions were read as uniform statements with responses in the form of a 4-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. A Logistic regression analysis was done between no stigma and mild to moderate stigma for the demographic variables

Mean stigma score was 49.55 with standard deviation 12.16. Minimum stigma score was 24 and maximum 84 shows the range of 60. Males and persons with only primary education level had mild to moderate level of stigma (B=1.084&1.246); people who were doing job, studying, or in business (B=-0.39, -0.326, -1.701 respectively) had less stigma compared to those who were unemployed, retired or housewives.

There were up to the moderate level of stigma towards PLWHA in the community. Male and people with less education had mild to moderate stigma compared to female and people with higher education. Those who were studying, doing job and were doing business had less stigma, than unemployed, housewife or retired population.