Personalized Stigma and Disclosure Concerns Among HIV-Infected Immigrant and Indigenous HIV-Infected Persons in the Netherlands

This study examines stigmatization among immigrant and indigenous (a person whose parents were both born in the Netherlands) HIV-infected patients in the Netherlands. We interviewed 90 indigenous Dutch and 112 immigrant HIV-infected patients using the personalized stigma and disclosure concerns subscales of the HIV Stigma Scale. Use of these scales with HIV-infected immigrant patients was feasible as we found adequate reliability and patients were able to answer the questions after explanation. Personalized stigma was significantly higher among HIV-infected immigrants. Disclosure concerns were significantly higher among persons with an HIV transmission route other than men having sex with men. In multivariate analyses adjusting for age, sex, and number of years being HIV positive, having an immigrant status remained significantly associated with personalized stigma and HIV transmission routes other than men having sex with men remained significantly associated with having more disclosure concerns. Our findings suggest that social workers and counselors should be especially attentive to experienced and perceived HIV stigma among HIV-infected persons from these particular populations. Future studies should explore the mechanisms underlying stigmatization in the different subgroups so interventions to decrease stigmatization can be developed and examined.