Association of comprehensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS and discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) among Filipino women

Background@#The Philippines is among the countries with the fastest growth rate of HIV cases in the Asia-Pacific Region. HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination are recognized as major barriers, directly and indirectly inflicting harm to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Despite this, there is a lack of studies regarding HIV/AIDS discrimination in the Philippines. This study aimed to assess the association between comprehensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS and discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHA among women in the Philippines. @*Methodology@#Secondary data analysis was done using the Philippine National Demographic Health Survey (2017). Twenty two thousand eight hundred thirteen (22,813) Filipino women aged 15-49 years old were included in this study. Multiple logistic regression was performed to determine the association between comprehensive knowledge and discriminatory attitudes. The final model was built using the change in estimate criterion and sampling weights were applied. @*Results@#More than 3 out of 4 (76.87%) had discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHA, whereas only 1 out of 4 (26.24%) had comprehensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Results of multiple logistic regression reveal that women without comprehensive knowledge are 2.53 times more likely to have discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHA (OR= 2.53, 95% CI =2.26-2.84). @*Conclusion@#Given that women without comprehensive knowledge are more likely to have discriminatory attitudes, HIV/AIDS campaigns may be strengthened by integrating necessary concepts in comprehensive sexual education and conducting more active nationwide information and education campaign efforts. Moreover, there is a need to formally evaluate the overall effectiveness of existing interventions.

HIV-related stigma and discrimination: a study of health care workers in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Background: The aim of this study was to identify the level of stigmatized and discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV (PLHIV) among health care workers (HCWs) and the factors that influenced these attitudes. Methods: This research was conducted at Dr. Zainoel Abidin General Hospital Banda Aceh, Indonesia. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for this research. Eighty nine HCWs were included in this study and they were selected purposively. Correlation analysis, analysis of variance and independent sample t test analysis was used according to the type of data. Finally, a multiple linear regression model was used to identify the predictor factor for stigmatized and discriminatory attitudes. Results: We found that the level of stigmatized and discriminatory attitudes was high. Bivariate analysis showed that type of HCW, education, marital status, knowledge on transmission and prevention of HIV and irrational fear of HIV transmission were significant related with stigmatized attitudes (p < 0.05). Type of HCW, marital status, age, knowledge on transmission and prevention of HIV and irrational fear of HIV transmission indicated significant (p < 0.05) differences in the levels of discriminatory attitudes. A multiple linear regression model identified type of HCW and irrational fear of HIV transmission correlated with stigmatized attitudes (R2 = 0.230) and knowledge on transmission and prevention of HIV correlated with discriminatory attitudes (R2 = 0.119). Conclusion: Irrational fear of HIV transmission and type of HCW are significant predictors to stigmatized attitudes; knowledge on transmission and prevention of HIV is a predictor to discriminatory attitudes towards PLHIV among HCWs.