Published in Health & Place, September 2009, by Chi Chiao of Institute of Health and Welfare Policy in Taiwan, Vinod Mishra of ICF Macro, and William Sambisa of the University of North Carolina. Non-acceptance of people living with HIV acts as a major obstacle to HIV prevention, treatment, and care and support programs. This study investigated the influence of individual- and community-level factors on accepting attitudes toward people living with HIV in Kenya. Three indicators of accepting attitudes were examined: 1) willingness to care for an infected household member, 2) willingness to buy vegetables from an infected vendor, and 3) willingness to allow an infected female teacher to continue teaching. The findings suggest that the characteristics of the communities where people live have major influences on the attitudes toward HIV-infected people, in addition to the individual characteristics. HIV program strategies aimed at increasing accepting attitudes toward HIV-infected people should also consider community-level factors.
Related Market + Service Offerings