Can social support mediate stigma and perceived stress in people live with human immunodeficiency virus?

ABSTRACT

Stigma has heavily impacted People Living with HIV (PLWH). Limited studies report on how social support affects HIV-related stigma and perceived stress, especially in Myanmar. During first seven months of 2020, a random sample of 248 eligible PLWH were contacted from a private, closed Facebook group with more than 18,000 Myanmar people, where 90% of the members were PLWH. Variables collected included demographics data, perceived stress, social support, and HIV stigma. After controlling for the effects of demographic variables, the path from HIV stigma to perceived stress (direct effect β = 0.40) and though the mediation of social support was significant (indirect effect β = 0.014). However, the mediating effect of social support was non-significant between HIV stigma and perceived stress. This exploratory study shows that social support did not have the expected effect of decreasing perceived stress in PLWH in Myanmar. Interventions to reduce HIV stigma to decrease perceived stress should consider other strategies, e.g., spirituality-based practice, to reduce perceived stress in Myanmar PLWH.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• perceived stress
• stigma
• social support
• Myanmar

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge all the study participants, as without them, it would not be possible to complete this project. We also thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with this research: Ei Ei Htet, Thiha Kyaw, and Aung Htet from National Taiwan University; and Myo Nyein Aung from Advanced Research Institute for Health Sciences and Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Juntendo University.

Disclosure statement

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

Authors’ contributions

All authors on this paper meet the four criteria for authorship as identified by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE); all authors have contributed to the conception and design of the study, drafted or have been involved in revising this manuscript, reviewed the final version of this manuscript before submission, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21TW011277 (PI: W. T. Chen) and the National Institutes of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30MH058107 (PI: S. J. Shoptaw). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.