Dual pharmaceutical citizenship: Exploring biomedicalization in the daily lives of mixed HIV-serostatus couples in Canada

Molly Ryan, Joshua B. Mendelsohn, Amrita Daftary, Minhui Yang, Sandra Bullock, Bertrand Lebouché and Liviana Calzavara

Social Science & Medicine, 2022, vol. 298, issue C

Abstract: Positive Plus One is the first large-scale mixed methods study of mixed HIV serostatus couples in Canada. We aimed to understand how biomedicalization i.e., a social process of commodification and expansion of the jurisdiction of medicine over health, influenced the everyday relationships of these couples. We completed 51 semi-structured interviews among a purposive sample of HIV-positive (n = 27) and HIV-negative (n = 24) partners in current or past mixed-serostatus relationships. Participants were recruited after completing an online survey where they consented to be re-contacted for qualitative interviews. Participants represented a diversity of sexual orientations, gender identities, and other sociodemographic characteristics. Drawing on inductive thematic analysis to identify patterns within couples, across serostatus and sexual orientations, we argue that everyday lives of mixed-serostatus couples were shaped by biomedical knowledge and enacted through routine adherence to obtain and maintain viral load undetectability. Our findings illustrated the importance of learning biomedical knowledge for mixed-serostatus couples in this study, the empowering influence of undetectable = untransmittable (UU) discourse, and its role in rendering HIV mundane through routine ART adherence. We introduce the concept of ‘dual pharmaceutical citizenship’ to underscore a process by which particular biopolitical and biomedical expectations are fulfilled in mixed-serostatus relationships. These findings have implications for people who do not readily accept or have access to biomedical knowledge, particularly when treatment-as-prevention frames a “right” and “wrong” approach to HIV management. Future studies should focus on couples where at least one partner does not readily accept or have access to biomedical knowledge.

Keywords: Serodiscordance; Mixed HIV-Serostatus couples; Qualitative research; Biomedicalization; Canada; Dyadic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622001691
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:298:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622001691

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114863

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().