Despite international efforts, stigma is still a significant issue for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). This paper explores the stigma encountered in health interactions, focusing on strategies PLWHA use to manage and reduce it. It is hoped that our findings will improve future interactions by contributing towards a more understanding practitioner-patient relationship. The data have been drawn from a small qualitative study conducted in Christchurch, New Zealand. Fourteen participants took part in semi-structured face-to-face interviews in 2013 and 11 of these participants were then interviewed again in 2014. Codes and themes were developed through inductive thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Our findings identified that whilst the majority of participants had positive experiences, nearly all had faced stigma during their health interactions. Most of these encounters were due to healthcare workers holding exaggerated fears of transmission or not maintaining confidentiality and privacy. The main way that participants managed this stigma was through seeking control in their interactions. This overarching strategy could be further divided into three key themes: selective disclosure of their HIV status, self-advocacy and developing their HIV knowledge. We discuss these findings in the context of the current literature, comparing our results to strategies that have been previously identified in social settings.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 November 2022.
All research outputs
#6,575,778
of 26,367,306 outputs
Outputs from AIDS Care
#661
of 2,966 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#99,295
of 373,453 outputs
Outputs of similar age from AIDS Care
#31
of 122 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,367,306 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 74th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,966 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 373,453 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 122 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.
