SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT HIV/AIDS,TRUST OF SOURCES AND PERCEIVED RISK OF INFECTION

The relationship between sources of information about AIDS/HIV, trust of the sources, how informed about AIDS people thought they were, and perceived risk to self and others were examined using three samples. One included young heterosexual students (113 females and 91 males), while the others included slightly older heterosexuals (74 females and 73 males) and homosexuals (82 males) from the general community. Homosexual men were the only group who trusted the same sources from which they received the most information (eg gay publications and AIDS organisations). Heterosexuals trusted expert sources the most, but the students received most information from magazines aimed at their peer groups and the heterosexuals in the community sample received most information from the print media. For the students, perceived personal risk was influenced most by perceived risk to male friends and people with the same sexual practices, whereas for the community samples it was influenced most by perceived risk to people with the same practices. The results suggest a strong peer influence on perceptions of personal risk of HIV infection.     

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF RISK PRACTICES AMONG INJECTING DRUG USERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEPATITIS C PREVENTION

‘Risk’ is central to recent sociological studies of health and related behaviour, particularly in discourses about HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C (HCV). While epidemiological survey predominates over qualitative investigation in HCV risk reduction, it is necessary to move beyond individual‐level characteristics to gain a fuller understanding of the social context of risk. This paper investigates the context of HCV‐related risk behaviour among injecting drug users (IDUs) and discusses the behavioural and social determinants of risk practices. Data from 336 IDUs completing a self‐administered questionnaire were analysed. The data show that needle‐sharing practices are often integral to long‐standing relationships, particularly sexual ones. The level of drug dependency, trust relationships between partners and misconceptions about HCV transmission have been demonstrated to be associated with risk behaviour. Logistic factors, such as poor access to injecting equipment, limited hours of operation, and fear of police were given as barriers to safer injecting. Given the progression of the HCV epidemic, prevention campaigns should aim at risk reduction rather than risk elimination.     

SOME DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF HIV/AIDS-RELATED DISCRIMINATION

In late 1991, a survey was made of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination in the Australian community. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 2,053 respondents. Twenty-one questions provided an index of expressed discrimination. Social contact with HIV-positive people was a significant predictor of low levels of discrimination. Other important predictors of (lower) levels of discrimination were: social contact with gay men, education, sex, age, sexual identity, and sexual experience. Social contact with gay men was the single best predictor of positive attitudes towards people with HIV/AIDS.     

Making sense of HIV/AIDS: Pascal de Duve and the sensitive historian of education1

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s historians, in general, have increasingly engaged in critical analyses of the emergence and development of what has come to be known as ‘the HIV/AIDS pandemic’. Historians of education have also become interested in the role-played by education in the history of HIV/AIDS. Although the existing educational histories have successfully examined the multiple and far-reaching power structures that helped shape the educational responses to the disease, I will argue that their focus on ideological and geopolitical power structures runs the risk of losing sight of the crucial and often sensorial responses of individuals who have played a part in the educational history of HIV/AIDS. One such individual is the Flemish philosopher Pascal de Duve, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1989. De Duve’s particular approach to the disease clearly illustrate the importance of the senses in how people attributed particular meanings to HIV/AIDS. Knowing that this approach would prove surprising to both his readership and to his wider television audience, de Duve employed sensory experiences and modes of communication (for instance, gesture) to educative ends. I conclude that an intersensorial approach to the past will render historians of education more sensitive to unexpected personal responses towards HIV/AIDS to unexpected personal responses towards HIV/AIDS.     

HIV/AIDS fifty and older: a hidden and growing population

Contrary to common belief, HIV and AIDS are prevalent in the older adult population. Currently, between ten to fifteen percent of HIV/AIDS new cases occur in individuals fifty and older (Chiao, Ries, & Sande, 1999). With the aging of the baby boomer generation, and the introduction of erectile dysfunction medications, such statistics are guaranteed to increase at alarming rates. This population also faces hazardous risk factors that increase its possibility of contracting the disease. Stereotypes and lack of information continue to limit older adults from receiving the medical, educational, and psychological attention they need to avoid and to combat the virus. This article discusses the rising trends in the fifty and older population as well as some of the factors that increase the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among this population. Prevention, assessment, and treatment practices are also outlined; if instituted, these interventions may help promote a significant reduction in the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the older adult population.     

Impacts of HIV/AIDS on poor and socially marginalised former commercial plasma donors in rural central China: social work implications

Little is known about the impact of HIV/AIDS on people who acquired the virus through former commercial plasma donations in the mid-1990s in rural Central China. The objective of this study was to examine socioeconomic impacts associated with HIV/AIDS on poor farm workers and their families, with a particular focus on economic hardships and social exclusion. The findings from 30 interviews reveal the profound effects of deteriorating health on labour power loss. The well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS was immensely affected by the loss of income, debts due to health-related expenses and a lack of alternate sources of income. Social exclusion and HIV/AIDS-related stigma remain significant issues in a workplace, funerals, and weddings. This article highlights the economic impacts of HIV/AIDS on China’s rural population and provides recommendations for social workers to mitigate the impacts of social exclusion on vulnerable rural households in China.     

Gay Men's Knowledge of HIV Transmission and ‘Safe’ Sex: A Question of Accuracy

The study described in this paper is part of a project assessing the impact of the HIV epidemic on 535 men who have sex with men. These men were surveyed about their knowledge of HIV, their sexual practices, other issues concerning the transmission of HIV, and AIDS. This paper focuses on these men's beliefs about HIV transmission, their perceptions of the safety of a number of sexual and social practices, and the factors influencing these perceptions. The findings indicate, in general, that the men surveyed were moderately well informed about HIV transmission. Some twenty percent of the men were well-informed about both ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ sexual practices, a small number were ill-informed and the remainder, the majority, were well-informed about some aspects and ill-informed about others. The data suggest that information from the mainstream and gay press is not only differentially available but that information is processed and interpreted by the men in different ways. Variables which influence the manner in which information is interpreted are place of residence (locale), awareness of gay community posters and pamphlets, and the men's sexual practice; these are associated with cautiousness or rashness in the men's judgments of safety and risk.     

The effect of religious and sexual stigmas on programmers and trust in their work product

Research on stigmatized individuals is widespread; however, there are only a few studies on how stigma affects trust in a stigmatized person's work product. In two experiments, participants evaluate a target individual who is described as either Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Atheist-Agnostic or either heterosexual/homosexual/bisexual. Participants are asked to rate how they feel about a target and how trustworthy they feel the target individual's work product is. All religions and sexual orientations except Christian or Jewish heterosexuals are rated less positively and their work products are rated as less trustworthy compared to a neutral control. Results also show that affect plays a strong mediating role in the relationship between stigmatized conditions and trust in work product.     

Conspiracy beliefs about HIV/AIDS and birth control among African Americans: implications for the prevention of HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancy

In this article, we examine the potential role that conspiracy beliefs regarding HIV/AIDS (e.g., "HIV is a manmade virus") and birth control (e.g., "The government is trying to limit the Black population by encouraging the use of condoms") play in the prevention of HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancies among African Americans in the United States. First, we review prior research indicating that substantial percentages of African Americans endorse conspiracy beliefs about HIV/AIDS and birth control. Next, we present a theoretical framework that suggests how conspiracy beliefs influence sexual behavior and attitudes. We then offer several recommendations for future research. Finally, we discuss the policy and programmatic implications of conspiracy beliefs for the prevention of HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancy .     

AIDS KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES AMONG CANBERRA SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

This paper reports findings from a study of 1,014 Canberra secondary school students in 15 government and private schools. Open-ended responses concerning students' understanding of AIDS, and their views regarding prevention, are presented and discussed. Data on source of AIDS information are also investigated. In general, students understand AIDS as sex-linked, that it involves transmission through the blood, and that there is no cure for it. They espouse more research and education as the main preventive measures, although males also propose homophobic solutions. Teachers and television are the primary sources of AIDS information. Differences by sex of respondent and school type are reported and implications for school-based AIDS education policies are suggested.     

Policies,Procedures, and People: Sources of Support for Government?

Objective . Many have written about the public's low opinion of the federal government; however, the theoretical sources and consequences of political trust have been empirically elusive. Drawing on the procedural justice framework, this study investigates the structure and consequences of people's mistrust of the federal government. Methods . Using data from various years of the National Election Study (NES), this research investigates the relationship between policy, procedural, and personal concerns and support of government. Results . Judgments about policy outputs, the process by which these policies develop, and the people involved in this process are shown to be sources of governmental trust, and certain aspects of trust are shown to have important behavioral consequences. Conclusions . These findings help to explain the failure of previous research into the causes and consequences of political trust. The various policy and process judgments that the NES Index combines play important independent roles in explaining political trust itself and its relationship with political behaviors and other attitudes.     

Crisis as challenge: counselling counsellors,persons living with HIV / AIDS and survivors

Although the AIDS pandemic has catastrophic implications for all levels of South African society, it can be viewed as an opportunity to face the inevitability of human mortality with dignity rather than fear and denial and to rebuild shattered communities. This article discusses issues pertaining to counseling HIV-infected persons, the counselors themselves, and families and social groups affected by AIDS-related deaths. Counseling of HIV/AIDS patients is supportive in nature, with a focus on here-and-now issues such as unfinished business, reconciliation with family members, finding meaning in daily activities, and preserving a sense of personal control. This process can be obstructed, however, by distrust of authority figures, anger at experts who fail to cure the disease, and an internalized sense of shame and inferiority. The effectiveness of AIDS counselors depends on their ability to recognize and resolve personal conflicts triggered by HIV-positive clients, including feelings about death, helplessness, overidentification, and discomfort with sexual issues. Most South Africans will face bereavement and have to go through a mourning process for friends and relatives. Complicated and delayed grief reactions triggered by new and continuous losses can be expected. Involvement of community members in the grieving process, whether as helpers, volunteers, professionals, or recipients of service, offers South African society an opportunity for development of a new culture of compassion.     

And then I became a prostitute … Some aspects of prostitution and brothel prostitutes in Dakar,Senegal

In the framework of a research undertaken to study the role of clients of brothel prostitutes in the spread of HIV in Dakar, Senegal, prostitutes working in several sectors of prostitution (street, bar, hotels, etc.), provided information about their life and about how they became prostitutes through opened interviews. Information was also obtained by observation of the brothels during the fieldwork with clients. This paper describes some characteristics of prostitution in brothels and prostitutes in Dakar, Senegal. This research shows that young African women are vulnerable to HIV infection because sexual relations with men are an important means to achieve social and economic status, and for some women they are necessary for survival. These data show that Senegalese prostitutes, because of their high HIV prevalence, represent a reservoir of HIV infection and a core group for HIV transmission into Senegalese society. This suggests that in spite of information and free condoms, a number of prostitutes engage in unprotected sex. Clandestine and minor prostitutes are at major risk because they are not targeted for condom interventions. Pockets of non-utilization of condoms were found in some geographic areas (brothels) of Dakar and merit local interventions.     

HIV/AIDS treatments

Although fewer people are being diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S. and deaths continue to decline, the number of adults age 50 and older who are living with HIV/AIDS is larger than ever. It is likely that older people will continue to comprise an increasingly larger proportion of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, reflecting both the ineffective prevention efforts targeting older adults and the highly effective antiretroviral therapies that allow many people to live for significantly longer periods of time. These recent trends have created two distinct populations of older persons with HIV/AIDS: those who were infected later in life and those infected earlier and now aging with HIV disease. Aging with HIV/AIDS presents unique psychosocial challenges that may be exacerbated by the aging process. HIV-related stigma, social support and coping issues and evidence-based psychosocial interventions for older adults with HIV/AIDS are reviewed in this paper and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Meaningful life and happiness: Perspective from Malaysian Youth

As suicide rates among young people are rising globally, a mixed-mode research was conducted to investigate the perception of young people in Malaysia of what is meant by “Meaningful Life”, and its association with “life is determined by myself”. Two hundred and seventy young people aged 15–24 were recruited in this cross sectional survey. A thematic qualitative approach was used to analyze open-ended questions and the findings reveal that happiness, relationships with family members and friends and having specific goals in life were the top three contributors to meaningfulness in young peoples’ lives. The Chi-square test for independence showed significant association between the coded variables and gender. Females perceived life to be meaningful when the people around them were happy and males perceived life to be meaningful when having good relationships with people around them, and both thought that having goals in life make it meaningful. The result also showed that there was a significant association for females between “life is determined by myself” and “meaningful life”. Present findings suggested that meaningfulness in life is not a pure individual affect or personal construct but a relational concept; it is related to the meaningful activities in which young people engaged. Future researcher may further explore the relationship between youth perceptions of meaningful life and autonomous environments, among the immediate ecological systems of family, peers, and school surroundings.     

Sexual Communication and Seroadaptation Practices in HIV-Negative Midlife and Older Men Who Have Sex With Men

Advances in treatments have increased the longevity of people with HIV. The high prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) creates a greater risk for exposure that increases with age. Seroadaptation, which includes serosorting (sexual behavior and condom use based on knowing the serostatus of self and partners) and strategic sexual positioning (choosing receptive versus insertive anal sex), is sometimes used as an HIV risk-reduction strategy. This study examined seroadaptation, sexual communication, and HIV-risk behaviors in 420 sexually active HIV-negative MSM aged 40–81 years in South Florida via anonymous pen-and-paper questionnaire. Recreational drug use and serosorting (i.e., not using condoms if the partner said he was HIV-negative) were associated with higher risk for unprotected receptive anal intercourse. Younger age, greater number of partners, and serosorting were associated with higher risk for unprotected insertive anal intercourse. Understanding these behaviors in this group might help guide HIV-prevention efforts. Future research may examine the role of HIV-prevention medication (PrEP) in influencing sexual behavior in midlife and older MSM.     

Family and Friends of People with HIV/AIDS Support Group

ABSTRACT

Those who are supporting a loved one with HIV/AIDS are under a great deal of stress and need support too. This article describes a support group for family and friends living with HIV/AIDS in which members share their personal experiences, educate one another, and in the process, realize they are not alone as they learn to cope with the diagnosis of AIDS or HIV+ in someone they love. The struggles, conflicts, and emotions of the group members and of the group facilitators are discussed.     

Is Pesticide Use Socially Acceptable? A Comparison between Urban and Rural Settings

Objective . This study examines key factors that are identified as theoretically probable influences on levels of public acceptance of pesticide use. Research questions were generated about the relationship between levels of acceptability of pesticide use and measures of trust in information about pesticides from various sources, perceptions of the safety of pesticides, concerns about exposure, personal experiences with pesticides, place of residence (urban/rural), and several other demographic variables. Methods . These factors were examined using data gathered in a random-sample, self-completion survey of residents in urban and rural areas in a northern Utah county. Results . Bivariate analysis indicates significant differences between urban and rural respondents that disappear when examined in multivariate analyses. The perception of the safety of pesticides is the variable most strongly associated with levels of acceptability of pesticide use. Conclusions . Personal experience with pesticides is more important than residency in predicting acceptability levels. Trust is a significant predictor for perceptions of safety, but not for acceptability.     

Too old to test? Prevalence and correlates of HIV testing among sexually active older adults

ABSTRACT

Older adults account for 17% of new HIV diagnoses in the US and are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV later in the course of the disease compared to younger people. We calculated the prevalence and associated factors of having ever been tested for HIV among sexually active older adults. We analyzed data from the 2008–2016 General Social Survey Limited to respondents ≥65 years of age who reported more than one sex partner(s) in past 12 months (n = 757). HIV testing prevalence, prevalence ratios, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by demographic variables and HIV-related risk behaviors. An estimated 16.3% of sexually active older adults have tested for HIV, and 15.9% were at increased risk for HIV infection (reported injection drug and/or crack–cocaine use, exchanging money for sex, more than three sex partners in the past year, or men who reported having sex with another man). In the adjusted model, adults aged 65–70, not married, self-identified as gay/bisexual, and at increased risk for HIV infection were more likely to have tested for HIV. An estimated 83.7% of sexually active older adults never tested for HIV. Strategies are needed to increase HIV awareness and testing among potentially high-risk older adults.