We conducted a cross-sectional survey to examine various pathways of resilience among HIV-positive youth living within informal settlements outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Relationships between variables were modelled and evaluated using linear regression analysis and structural equational modelling. We identified unique pathways linking social support, adverse childhood experiences, and HIV stigma to general health and resilience. These results may provide valuable insights for developing targeted intervention strategies to improve treatment adherence and HIV management in this population.
This HIV Grand Rounds session featured Dr. Ellen F. Eaton who highlighted addiction medicine as integral to comprehensive medical care. Attendees were able to understand stigma as a barrier to health equity and strategies to create an inclusive HIV treatment environment. Attendees were able to identify opportunities to integrate substance use and infection prevention and treatment in both acute and community settings.
Presentation by Lynn Nguyen and William Dyer that examines women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) and the additional and unique need to seek sexual and reproductive health services. WLHA’s maternal health journeys can be shaped by the cultural norms and resources that exist in their society. This study sought to understand if and how WLHA’s family planning, pregnancy, and motherhood experiences could be influenced by the patriarchal culture,
gender roles, and HIV stigma in Vietnam, specifically.
Presentation by Khadesia Howell that aims to better understand intersectional stigma and discrimination and its effects on mental health, as well as to improve intersectional stigma assessment tools. It is a qualitative study executed by doing in-depth semi-structured interviews as a way for Black SMM to ‘think aloud’ and tell their stories and experiences. From this we were able to better understand how this marginalized group responds to stigma and discrimination and how they interact with intersectional stigma assessment tools.
Presentation by Dr. Toluwani Adekunle that highlights the experiences of Black and Latine HIV care consumers that foster medical mistrust. These are experiences as pertaining to care consumers’ perceptions of healthcare provider behaviors that invoked feelings of stigma/discrimination, thereby influencing care consumers’ levels of trust and mistrust.
The purpose of this study is to collaborate with the local Asian Pacific American with HIV (APAWH) community to adapt and evaluate the appropriateness, acceptability, and feasibility of a 4-session, 4-week Social-justice Oriented, Family Informed self-management intervention to promote health among APAWH in Southern California, particularly Orange counties (SOFIAA). The scientific premise is that APAWH experience systematic barriers in healthcare delivery and policies, resulting in poor health outcomes. Additionally, regardless of ethnicity, APAs often prioritize their responsibilities to their families over their own individual needs. Our hypothesis is that APAWH will perceive SOFIAA as acceptable, feasible, and appropriate and a future study will demonstrate SOFIAA may be used to promote family support, decrease the effects of structural racism and HIV-related stigma, and achieve better outcomes in APAWH. This study addresses the critical need to optimize an intervention to promote self-management skills among APAWH by simultaneously addressing the reality and effects of structural racism and discrimination against APAWH from both the mainstream U.S. society and the APA communities.
Oral Presentation at the CHIPTS HIV Next Generation Conference featuring Chenglin Hong held on January 2022. The presentation examines the effect of HIV stigma, which might be pronounced among Black sexual minority men living with HIV due to the Intersectionality and multiple minority stressors. Findings underscore the critical associations between HIV stigma and patient-reported mental health outcomes and quality of life.
National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Reflection by Wei-Ti Chen that discusses the importance of providing culturally sensitive family-centered self-management interventions for Asian Pacific Americans living with HIV. The reflection also focuses on how acculturation had an impact on patient-healthcare and was contributing to HIV stigma and stress.
Panel discussion by Gabriel Maldonado (TruEvolution), Dr. David Gere (UCLA Art & Global Health Center), Alejandra Aguilar and Karla Morales (East Los Angeles Women’s Center) part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Regional Learning Collaborative session 7. The presentations discussed strategies and approaches to address HIV stigma from expert panelists serving communities in California’s EHE Phase 1 counties. HIV stigma negatively affects the health and well-being of people with HIV, and it stops people at-risk for HIV from seeking prevention and testing services.
Panel discussion by Michelle Sandoval-Rosario, Jose Ortiz (Region IX PACE), and Alonso Bautista (AltaMed Health Services), Demisha Burns (WORLD), Adriana Kimbriel (CRIHB), Jason Norelli (GLIDE Foundation), and Mallery Jenna Robinson, (The LGBTQ Center Long Beach) that discusses the importance of community engagement in hardly reached communities to reduce viral suppression rates, reduce HIV Transmission rates, and improve linkage/retention in care.