BACKGROUND HIV infection rates are increasing among marginalized women in Ontario, Canada. HIV-related stigma, a principal factor contributing to the global HIV epidemic, interacts with structural inequities such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. The study objective was to explore experiences of stigma and coping strategies among HIV-positive women in Ontario, Canada. METHODS AND FINDINGS We...

BACKGROUND HIV-related stigma, among other factors, has been shown to have an impact on the desire to have children among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Our objective was to explore the experiences of HIV-related stigma among PLHIV in post-conflict northern Uganda, a region of high HIV prevalence, high infant and child mortality and low contraception use, and to describe how stigma affected th...

OBJECTIVES While health-related stigma has been the subject of considerable research in other conditions (eg, HIV/AIDS, obesity), it has not received substantial attention in diabetes. Our aim was to explore perceptions and experiences of diabetes-related stigma from the perspective of adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). DESIGN A qualitative study using semistructured interviews, whi...

BACKGROUND The stigma attached to substance use is considered as a barrier to treatment, resulting in continued dependence and harmful consequences for the health of drug abusers and society. METHODS In the current study, stigma and its relation with patient characteristics and secrecy was examined in people who were in treatment of drug dependency. Participants were 144 patients from two ref...

BACKGROUND Stigma is one of the many factors hindering tuberculosis (TB) control by negatively affecting hospital delay and treatment compliance. In Zambia, the morbidity and mortality due to TB remains high, despite extended public health attempts to control the epidemic and to diminish stigma. STUDY AIM To enhance understanding of TB-related stigmatizing perceptions and to describe TB patie...

HIV/AIDS-related stigma is believed to result in negative social consequences for people with the disease and to be a deterrent to HIV serostatus testing. The ability of communicators to change people's stigma perceptions and subsequently impact decisions to test, however, is not well understood. Based on the entertainment-education approach, this article presents the results of a field experim...

Stigma and social inequality deprive disadvantaged social groups of a sense of social well-being. Stress researchers have focused on prejudice-related events and conditions but have not described more intangible stressors experienced by sexual minorities. We use narrative methods to examine how sexual minorities experience stigma and social inequality as we focus on the more intangible stressor...

OBJECTIVE To analyse antiretroviral treatment (ART) knowledge and HIV- and ART-related stigma among the adult population in a rural Tanzanian community. DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional survey of 694 adults (15-49 years of age). METHODS Latent class analysis (LCA) categorized respondents' levels of ART knowledge and of ART-related stigma. Multinomial logistic regression assessed the ...

BACKGROUND Associations between HIV-related stigma and reduced antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence are widely established, yet the mechanisms accounting for this relationship are underexplored. There has been less attention to HIV-related stigma and its associations with ART initiation and current ART use. We examined pathways from HIV-related stigma to ART initiation, current ART use, and A...

African and Caribbean Black women in Canada have new HIV infection rates 7 times higher than their white counterparts. This overrepresentation is situated in structural contexts of inequities that result in social, economic and health disparities among African and Caribbean Black populations. Economic insecurity is a distal driver of HIV vulnerability, reducing access to HIV testing, prevention...