Perceived HIV stigmatization and association with cervical screening adoption among HIV-positive women in a Nigerian Secondary Health Facility: Implications for psychological interventions

Abstract

HIV-positive women are at risk of cervical cancer, but many barriers hinder them from adopting cervical screening. Therefore, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted to explore perceived HIV stigmatization and association with cervical screening adoption in a sample of HIV-positive women who never screened for cervical cancer. It was found that participants who had not disclosed their HIV status to others did not experience perceived HIV stigmatization. Further, perceived HIV stigmatization did not hinder cervical screening adoption due to assertiveness among participants. Those who had not experienced perceived HIV stigmatization due to non-status disclosure were unaware of their susceptibility to cervical cancer. Some participants who had not experienced perceived HIV stigmatization were aware of cervical cancer but were reluctant to screen due to religion-related denial. Some participants who experienced perceived HIV stigmatization perceived that the experience hindered cervical screening adoption. Our findings will inform psychological interventions that may strengthen cervical screening adoption in this patient group.

Keywords:

• Cervical screening adoption
• HIV-positive women
• HIV stigmatization

Ethical approval

The study was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research ethics committee, the 1964 Helsinki ethical declaration, its later amendment, or a comparable standard. The study received ethics approval from the Oyo State Ministry of Health, research ethics committee (AD13/479/4221B).

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all participants and the female health care providers for their kind cooperation. The authors wish to thank Mr. and Mrs. Ogueji for their financial support for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Ogueji and Adejumo contributed equally, read and approved the final version, and are the first authors of this paper.

Data availability statement

The data associated with this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.