The role of the family in HIV status disclosure among women in Vietnam: Familial dependence and independence

ABSTRACT

Insights into disclosure by people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) can inform strategies for treatment and support, yet Vietnamese women's self-disclosure patterns are poorly understood. We conducted interviews with 12 HIV-positive women, identifying three principal factors influencing disclosure to family members: patrilocal residence, desire to protect own family, and the need for financial support. Women's decision-making about disclosure was significantly affected by dependence on or independence of parents-in-law and their own parents. We believe that our findings reveal the complex interplay of stigma and disclosure within Vietnamese families, highlighting the need for specific social measures that promote self-disclosure combined with family support for female PLWHA.

Notes

1. An expected subservience captured in the Vietnamese proverb: “Thuyen theo lai, gai theo chong” (“As a boat follows its tiller, a woman follows her husband”).

2. In Vietnam, it is customary that three years following a person´s death and burial family members dig up the grave, remove the bones of the deceased and put them in a small earthenware coffin, which is buried in a tomb.

3. Common practice in Vietnamese households.

4. In this case, the respondent, her husband and child, moved in with her mother when her husband was dying of AIDS so that she could work in her mother´s shop.