Measuring Stigma
Measures for other aspects of stigma

Excerpted from Evidence-based Generic Tools for Operational Research on HIV, Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer (ed.), 2008 (forthcoming), Geneva: World Health Organization.

Anticipated reactions to people living with HIV

Measuring anticipated reactions to people living with HIV is another useful way to gain insight into prevailing beliefs about people living with HIV and potential discrimination. Anticipated reactions to people living with HIV can be measured using the following indicator:

Percent of people anticipating stigmatizing behaviors toward people living with HIV.

Recommended items for measuring fear of stigma are as follows:

In my community:

• A man who has HIV would be abandoned by his partner.
• A woman who has HIV would be abandoned by her partner.
• A person living with HIV would be neglected.
• A person living with HIV would be avoided.
• A person living with HIV would be verbally abused, teased.
• A person living with HIV would not be allowed to go to work/school.

Willingness to support people living with HIV

Measuring willingness to help and care for people living with HIV may also be a useful perspective from which to gauge current levels of stigma. The following indicator pertains to this dimension of stigma:

• Percent of people reporting willingness to care for or help people living with HIV.

The following items are recommended to measure willingness to support people living with HIV:

• Imagine that you find out that one of your friends is HIV-infected. Would you still be friends with him/her?

• If a member of your family became sick with AIDS, would you be willing to care for her or him in your own household?

Human rights of people living with HIV

These items have been used to measure individuals’ opinions about issues that affect people living with HIV human rights, such as personal freedoms and equal access to quality healthcare. This dimension can be gauged using the following indicator:

• Percent of a population reporting attitudes that support equal rights, or support limiting the rights, of people living with HIV.

Human rights of people living with HIV can be measured using the following survey items:

• I think patients with HIV have the right to the same quality of care as any other patient.
• People with HIV should be legally separated from others to protect the public health.
• Women with HIV should be prevented from having children.
• Men and women with HIV should not be allowed to get married.