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HIV Transmission Worry Predicts Discrimination Intentions Among Nursing Students and Ward Staff in India

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Abstract

Health facility stigma impedes HIV care and treatment. Worry of contracting HIV while caring for people living with HIV is a key driver of health facility stigma, however evidence for this relationship is largely cross-sectional. This study evaluates this relationship longitudinally amongst nursing students and ward staff in India. Worry of contracting HIV and other known predictors of intent to discriminate were collected at baseline and 6 months in 916 nursing students and 747 ward staff. Using fixed effects regression models, we assessed the effect of key predictors on intent to discriminate over a 6-month period. Worry of contracting HIV predicted intent to discriminate for nursing students and ward staff in care situations with low and high-risk for bodily fluid exposure, confirming prior cross-sectional study results and underscoring the importance of addressing worry of contracting HIV as part of health facility HIV stigma-reduction interventions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all of the study participants for their insights and for generously sharing their time and thoughts on the sensitive topics involved in this study. The authors would also like to thank Radhika Kishore, Division of Medical Informatics, SJRI for their support of the mHealth application and data management. We acknowledge and thank the DriSti interviewers, intervention staff, and trackers for their hard work and dedication to the study participants.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Health (R01MH093257).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health Division, International Development Group, RTI International, 13th St., NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC, 20005, USA

    Laura Nyblade

  2. St. Johns Research Institute, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Krishnamachari Srinivasan, Tony Raj, Dhinagaran Devadass, Matilda Pereira & Maria L. Ekstrand

  3. Center for Applied Public Health Research, RTI International, Rockville, MD, USA

    Emmanuel A. Oga

  4. Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Elsa Heylen, Amanda Mazur, Wayne T. Steward & Maria L. Ekstrand

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  1. Laura Nyblade
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  2. Krishnamachari Srinivasan
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  3. Tony Raj
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  4. Emmanuel A. Oga
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  5. Elsa Heylen
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Correspondence to Laura Nyblade.

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Nyblade, L., Srinivasan, K., Raj, T. et al. HIV Transmission Worry Predicts Discrimination Intentions Among Nursing Students and Ward Staff in India. AIDS Behav 25, 389–396 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-020-03001-1

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