HIV-related stigma among healthcare providers working within infectious diseases and gynecology and obstetrics at a large teaching hospital in Denmark

ABSTRACT

HIV-related stigma experienced in healthcare settings may be particularly detrimental to people with HIV (PWH). This study aims to examine the drivers of stigma and enacted HIV-related stigma among healthcare providers working in HIV and non-HIV care at a large teaching hospital in Denmark. In total, 162 providers working in gynecology and obstetrics, and 57 providers working in infectious diseases completed the “Measuring HIV stigma and discrimination among health facility staff” questionnaire. Compared to providers working in infectious diseases, providers working in gynecology and obstetrics had less training in infection control, HIV, and stigma, and although their level of worry and negative attitudes toward PWH was overall low, they were more like to use extra precaution measures (e.g., double gloves) when caring for PWH (20% versus 0%). Addressing HIV-related stigma in healthcare is important, as any amount of HIV-related stigma from providers has the potential to compromise the patients’ engagement in care and health outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV-related stigma
• healthcare
• provider perspective
• infectious diseases
• gynecology
• and obstetrics

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participating healthcare providers for their participation in this study and for taking the time to complete the survey. We would also like to thank Ditte Scofield, MScH for her translation help.

Declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable, as no biomedical intervention was performed. The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The project was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (P-2020-780).

Consent to participate

All participants provided informed consent prior to completing the survey. The consent statement included information about the study aim, that participation was voluntary and that the participants could withdraw from the survey at any time.

Availability of data and material (data transparency)

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author if approval is obtained from the Danish Protection Agency (https://datatilsynet.dk).

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Ellen Moseholm, Charlotte Wilken-Jensen, and Nina Weis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ellen Moseholm and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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