Demographic factors, sexual practices and HIV characteristics associated with stigma perception

Abstract

Introduction: Stigma is considered a mark imposed by society to deny the differentiation of people from others and the cause of rejection, in this case by being carriers of HIV. Objective: To explore the demographic factors, sexual practices and disease characteristics related to the perception of stigma in a group of people with HIV in the city of Medellín in 2014. Materials and methods: an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, which included 217 Medellin patients with HIV diagnosis to explore the calculation using the Berger scale. We performed summary and frequency measures, binary logistic regression. Results: The mean age was 39.3 (SD 10.79), men predominated with 83.9%, single individuals 67%, homosexuals 51.2%, 41% had more than five years with the disease. Estimates are presented in 50.7%, with men (78.2%) being higher, women being 2.3 times more likely to perceive high stigma than men (95% CI 1.12 - 5.26), persons in the "separated / divorced / widowed" category had 2.9 times the probability of perceiving high stigma than in the "married / free-union" category (95% CI 1.02-8.44). Conclusions: It was possible to explore the association between the perception of stigma in patients with HIV. It is evident that the female sex presents a high prevalence of high quality because of its condition as described in other studies, as being "single / separated / widowed" is associated with the perception of high stigma.