Care centre visits to married people living with HIV: An indicator for measuring AIDS-related stigma & discrimination

We tested whether observation of the presence and relationship of attendants (i. e. those that accompany upon admission) and visitors to a sample of 230 (128 male, 102 female) married HIV- positive people in an HIV care centre provides an indicator of caregiving, AIDS- related stigma and discrimination. Sensitivity to gender, location (urban vs. rural), age (<35 yrs vs. > 35) and source of infection (spouse vs. non- spouse) were factors considered to modulate AIDS- related stigma and assess discrimination. HIV- positive people were accompanied by their spouse (53%), mother (14%), father (7%), with only 7% attending alone. Immediate family most commonly accompanied on admission (80%), but visitors were mainly from the ' extended' family (32%) with many receiving no visitors (48%). Females (11%) were more likely than males to attend alone (11% vs. 4%; p<0.05). No effect of location, age or infector was obtained. Females were more likely to be visited by their mother (14% vs. 6%; p<0.01) and non- immediate family (39% vs. 27%; p<0.05) than males were. In contrast, fathers (0% vs. 6%; p <0.05) and spouses were less likely (3% vs. 10%; p<0.05) to visit females than males. No effect of location or age upon visitation was obtained. Non- spouse infected persons were less likely than spouse- infected to be visited by their spouse (3% vs. 10%; p<0.05) but more likely to receive ' extended' family visitation (43% vs. 24%; p<0.01). Spouseinfected persons had a higher rate of no visitors than persons not infected by their spouse (54% vs. 40%; p<0.05). Observation of the presence and relationship of attendants and visitors to HIV- positive people has potential as an indicator of caregiving AIDS- related stigma and discrimination. The measure appears particularly sensitive to the gender of the HIV-positive person. Such a measure may aid healthcare professionals to focus resources such as relational counselling upon the family and close friends of people experiencing AIDS- related stigma and discrimination, with the aim of improving the provision of care within the community.