RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

Aids-Related Stigma, Care And Psycho-Social Health Among Aids-Patients In Northern Tanzania

Lie, Gro Therese(1), Biswalo, Paul M.(2)

1) Research center for health promotion (HEMIL), University of Bergen, 2) Norway Faculty of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The HEMIL centre is involved in international collaborative health promotion research. This abstract describes one in a series of studies based on collaboration with researchers at the University of Dar es Salaam, T~ia. The relationship between AIDS-related stigma, care and psychosocial health was the focus of this study among 246 Tanzanian AIDS-patients in an HIV/AIDS counselling programme. The patients' experience/perception of stigma and care/social support from categories of key persons in their network were related to measures of anxiety, depression, guilt feelings, suicidal thoughts, feelings of acceptability to others, loneliness and meaningful relationships. High stigma scores and low care scores were associated with indicators of poor psycho-social health. Stigma and care were associated with measures of psycho-social health, also when controlling for the patients' AIDS disease symptoms and ability to work. The patients' somatic health status alone could not predict psycho-social health as well as models including stigma and care from key persons in the network. The impact of neighbours' stigma and care indicate a need to address the larger social context of the HIV-infected.

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