Healthcare providers in Nigerian hospitals and HIV-related stigma: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Background:

Elimination of barriers to identification of new HIV infections, treatment adherence and retention in care of people living with HIV/AIDS is vital to the attainment of WHO's ambitious vision 2030 of 90:90:90 for HIV/AIDS. However, HIV-related stigma, especially among health workers, has been widely documented as a serious threat to this project. This study explored the factors associated with the stigmatization of people living with HIV among healthcare workers in Nigerian hospitals.

Method:

Electronic literature search was conducted on eight databases using keywords and MeSH guidelines. Using the PRISMA protocol, studies published from 2003 to 2022 were retrieved and analyzed.

Result:

Of the 1481 articles identified, 9 met the inclusion criteria. All the included studies were conducted across 10 of the 36 states in Nigeria, with every geo-political zone in Nigeria represented by at least two studies. The overarching themes identified were attitude and beliefs (n = 7), knowledge of HIV/AIDS (n = 3), quality of care (n = 4), education and in-service training (n = 4), and health facility policies and procedures (n = 3). Factors associated with HIV-related stigma among healthcare workers varied by gender, healthcare settings, specialties of health workers, and the presence of institutional stigma reinforcements. Healthcare workers without recent in-service training on HIV/AIDS and those who work in hospitals without anti-HIV/AIDS stigma policies exhibited more HIV-related stigmatizing attitudes.

Conclusion:

Continuous in-service training of healthcare workers and the development of comprehensive stigma reduction interventions that will be reinforced with anti-HIV stigma policies in clinical settings may facilitate the attainment of national HIV prevention goals.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV infection
• Human immune-deficiency virus
• social stigmatization
• social discrimination
• healthcare workers

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the Universiti Sains Malaysia for providing electronic access to literature databases. They also acknowledge Prof Nwafor Juliana C. for the contributions to this study.

Ethical approval

This is a review article which didn't involve human participants.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nelson C. Okpua

Okpua C. Nelson, is a Nigerian licensed practicing nurse, midwife, and public health nurse. He holds bachelor degree in Nursing (Nigeria), MSc (Cambridge) and a PhD student (Malaysia). His research interests are in public health, community health, epidemiology, communicable diseases, cancer, Malaria, Coronavirus, among others. He has published many outstanding works in highly ranked international journals.

Awo Godwin C.

Awo Godwin C., he is a registered Nurse, Midwife, and public health Nurse. He also holds a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree (BNSc), MSc in Community health Nursing and currently a PhD student in the same field. He is a researcher in the field of public health. Among his published works are: Clinical procedure guide for nurses, Anxiety and perception among nurses toward the outbreak of COVID-19 in University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Akwa Ibom State, Compliance with practice of universal safety precaution among Midwives in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in practice care, Perception and utilization status of insecticide treated net among pregnant women attending antenatal care in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar (UCTH), Management and outcome of fever among mothers of children (0-5 years) in Edim Otop Community, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, Among Others.