title: Relationships Between Demographic, Clinical, and Health Care Provider Social Support Factors and Internalized Stigma in People Living With HIV.
abstract: Internalized HIV stigma (IHS) threatens people living with HIV (PLWH) and the public. Our purpose was to identify relationships between PLWH perceptions of IHS and demographic, clinical, overall health, health-related quality of life, and perceived health care provider (HCP) social support. Using survey data from PLWH (n = 292) in an urban HIV clinic, we first examined the reliability and validity of an existing IHS measure. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the IHS score was composed of three factors: (a) Perception of Negative Societal Beliefs, (b) Fear of Disclosure, and (c) Perception of Negative HCP Beliefs, which were used as dependent variables in the multivariate analysis. In multivariate regression models, gender, education, quality of life, Getting Needed Care, and Trust in HCP were significantly related to at least one IHS factor. Our findings advance the measurement of IHS and provide a foundation for intervention development to reduce IHS in care settings.
authors.forename: Nara
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bakken
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D057545:Social Stigma; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: health care provider communication; health care provider trust; health-related quality of life; internalized HIV stigma; quality care; social support