One-fourth of HIV patients believe their doctors stigm...(HIV infection. Researchers questione...),Health

Researchers questioned 223 patients during the baseline interviews and 171 during the follow-up. They were asked the following questions about stigmatization:

Since you contracted HIV, has any health care provider:
Been uncomfortable with you"
Treated you as inferior or in an inferior manner"
Preferred to avoid you"
Refused to serve you"

Patients were also asked six questions related to their access to health care: whether they had gone without medical care due to expense, if medical care was conveniently located, whether they could obtain medical care whenever they needed it, if they had easy access to medical specialists, if emergency care was easily obtainable and if they could be admitted to hospitals with no trouble.

The researchers found that at baseline 26 percent of the patients reported at least one of the four types of perceived stigma from a health care provider, and 19 percent reported the same at follow-up. Also, 58 percent claimed low access to care on at least one of the six relevant questions at baseline, as did 57 percent at follow-up.

Most importantly, we found that those who perceived stigma from a health care provider had more than twice the odds of reporting low access to care, even after examining the effect prospectively and adjusting for a host of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the researchers said.

Researchers noted the significance that perceived stigma could greatly affect [patients] use of needed medical services, including antiretroviral therapy. Because of this, patients may seek medical care only when their illness has progressed to a more severe stage, leading to more intensive medical interventions, hospitalization and earlier death.

The next step is to investigate whether physicians are in fact stigmatizing these patients, Kinsler said.

In addition to Kinsler, researchers included Mitchell Wong, Jennifer N. S
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