Social Stigma in the Care Service of People with Hiv/Aids for Students and Professionals of the Areas of Health, Medellin, Colombia

Abstract

AbstractIntroduction: The social stigma in people with HIV/AIDS by students and health professionals hinders early diagnosis, timely treatment and increases the spread risk of the pandemic. Objective: To describe the social stigma in the care of people with HIV/AIDS by socioeconomic, demographic and academic conditions. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study in 1,253 individuals. The scale of social stigma was validated with criteria of appearance, content, construct, internal consistency, reliability and usefulness. The analyzes included Pearson correlations, á Cronbach,factor analysis, frequencies, summary measures, Mann Whitney U, Anova and multivariate linear regression in SPSS 21.0 R. Results: The highest frequencies for stigma were related to the differential treatment delivered to people with HIV/AIDS (57.2 %), accounting necessary to create exclusive hospitals for this group (52.5 %), the attention of these patients increases the risk of infection (49.7 %), and the need to isolate HIV-positive (43.3 %). The main predictors of social stigma were the academic program, performing the presumptive test and semester of study. Conclusion: Social stigma attitudes were higher in individuals of the first cycle of formation, without performing the test screening, and medical students; this corroborates the need to improve communication, information and health education strategies to combat stigma.