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Attitudes: Health Professionals

The Role of Physician and Nurse Attitudes in the Health Care of Injecting Drug Users

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Pages 1007-1018 | Published online: 04 May 2010
 

Abstract

In 2005, 60 health care workers were recruited through services that attract injecting drug users (IDUs) and asked to complete attitude measures regarding IDU clients. Mediation analyses indicated that conservative health care workers displayed more negative attitudes toward their IDU clients because they believe that injecting drug use is within the control of the IDU. Negative attitudes toward IDU clients, in turn, were associated with worry about IDU clients’ behavior in the clinic and with beliefs that IDU clients should disclose their hepatitis C status to their health care worker. Perceptions of controllability of drug use were also associated with the belief that IDU clients’ ailments were caused by their IDU status. The study's limitations are noted.

RESUME

En 2005, 60 professionnels de santé travaillant dans des services qui attirent des usagers de drogues intraveineuses (UDI) ont été recrutés et ont répondu à des questions sur leurs attitudes face aux clients UDI. Les analyses de médiation indiquent que les professionnels conservateurs présentent plus d’attitudes négatives à l’égard des UDI car ils croient que le fait de s’injecter est un comportement contrôlable par l’usager. Les attitudes négatives des professionnels envers les UDI étaient quant à elles associées à des craintes concernant le comportement des usagers dans la clinique et à l’idée selon laquelle les usagers devraient informer le personnel de santé de leurs statut vis-à-vis de l’hépatite C. Les perceptions du caractère contrôlable de l’usage de drogue étaient aussi associées à la croyance selon laquelle les problèmes et les complaintes exprimées par les UDI étaient causées par leur statut d’usagers de drogues.

RESUMEN

En 2005, 60 trabajadores del sector de la salud fueron encontrados a través de servicios que atraen a los usuarios de drogas inyectables (UDI) y les pidieron completar medidas de actitud en cuanto a clientes UDI. Los análisis de mediación indicaron que los trabajadores conservadores del sector de la salud revelaron actitudes más negativas hacia los clientes UDI debido a que ellos creen que el uso de drogas inyectables está dentro del control de los usuarios de drogas inyectables. Las actitudes negativas hacia los clientes UDI fueron asociados con la preocupación acerca del comportamiento de los clientes UDI en la clínica y con la creencia de que los clientes UDI deberían revelar sus estatus de hepatitis C. Las percepciones de la habilidad del control del uso de drogas también fueron asociadas con la creencia que las dolencias de los clientes UDI fueron causadas por sus estatus UDI.

THE AUTHORS

Loren Brener is a research associate at the National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on injecting drug use, hepatitis C and equitable treatment, and access and care for people who use illicit substances. She has also worked in South Africa conducting HIV/AIDS prevention research with sex workers and cofounded a research unit focusing on understanding the health and psychosocial needs of street-based sex workers.

William von Hippel is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. Prior to his arrival at University of Queensland he served on the faculty for five years at the University of New South Wales and for twelve years at Ohio State University. His research activity has been primarily in the area of stereotyping and prejudice, where most of his work concerns the cognitive underpinnings and consequences of stereotyping. He also conducts research on social cognitive aging and executive functioning.

Susan Kippax. Since retiring from the Directorship of the NCHSR, Professor Kippax is employed as a Professorial Research Fellow. She is Chief Investigator on a number of studies including exploring the role of the Internet in building social capital among gay men, investigating the ways in which general practice deals with depression in gay men, and documenting ‘resilience’ in aboriginal families. More generally, she is interested in the prevention-treatment nexus and the ways in which policies concerning HIV-treatment roll out and HIV-testing play out in relation to prevention within modern public health.

Kristopher J. Preacher is an assistant professor of quantitative psychology at the University of Kansas. His research focuses primarily on the use of factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal and correlational data. Other interests include developing techniques to test mediation and moderation hypotheses, bridging the gap between theory and practice, and studying model evaluation and model selection in the application of multivariate methods to social science questions.

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