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ABSTRACT The present paper presents findings of an effort to develop a scale to measure the prejudice of health providers toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and then use it to investigate the detriments of their prejudice. The scale developed was reliable on Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient at 0.88. The intrinsic validity based on Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient was 0.94. The study was carried out in Vadodara City, Gujarat. A structured tool was used to measure prejudices and the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS. A sample of 50 doctors, 58 paramedics, and 25 lab technicians was interviewed. The study shows that a higher percentage of the paramedics (31%) than doctors (14%) reflected strong prejudices toward PLHA. Doctors reflected prejudices when it came to treatment/services, whereas paramedics reflected prejudices also with regard to family and social interaction in addition to treatment/services. Female health providers exhibit higher levels of prejudice than men. Application of logit regression revealed that training/orientation in HIV/AIDS and correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS are the two strongest covariates of prejudice. Providers who had correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS had less prejudice as compared to those who had less or incorrect knowledge. This indicates that the orientation of health providers and providing them with correct information about the disease could go a long way in reducing prejudice of health providers toward PLHA Learning objectives
Oral Session 5072.0—Issues in HIV and AIDS: International This page updated |
