The Role of Stigma Management in HIV Treatment Adherence

Lance Rintamaki, Kami Kosenko, Timothy Hogan, Allison M. Scott, Christopher Dobmeier, Erik Tingue and David Peek
Additional contact information
Lance Rintamaki: Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
Kami Kosenko: Department of Communication, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Timothy Hogan: Center for Healthcare Organization & Implementation Research, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Bedford, MA 01730, USA
Allison M. Scott: Department of Communication, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
Christopher Dobmeier: Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
Erik Tingue: Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
David Peek: Department of Medicine, Pen Bay Medical Center, Rockport, ME 04856, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-15

Abstract: Social stigma is linked to improper HIV treatment adherence, but how stigma impairs adherence outcomes is poorly understood. This study included 93 people living with HIV in the United States who participated in focus groups or one-on-one interviews regarding how stigma might affect medication management. Latent content analysis and constant comparative techniques of participant responses that were produced three thematic groupings that described how participants (a) orient to HIV stigma, (b) manage HIV stigma in ways that directly impair treatment adherence, and (c) manage HIV stigma in ways that may indirectly impair adherence. These findings illustrate the need to understand how patients orient to HIV stigma when prescribing medications and the complications that are inherent to such assessments. In addition, these findings provide a simple framework for organizing the different ways in which stigma management strategies may disrupt treatment adherence. Conceptually, these findings also offer a paradigm shift to extent theories on disclosure and concealment, in which only disclosure has been cast as an active process. These findings demonstrate how concealment is far from a passive default, often requiring enormous effort. Ultimately, these findings may guide intervention programs that help to entirely eliminate HIV by promoting optimized counseling and subsequent treatment adherence.

Keywords: HIV; stigma; disclosure; adherence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5003/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5003/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:24:p:5003-:d:295791

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().