UA Researchers Receive Grant to Study Stigma of AIDS in Rural America

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Dr. Susan Gaskins, professor in the Capstone College of Nursing at The University of Alabama, has received a $100,000 federal grant to study the impact of disclosing an AIDS diagnosis on rural African-American men. Dr. Pam Foster, assistant professor at the College of Community Health Sciences and deputy director of the Institute for Rural Health Research in the department of community health medicine, is co-investigator on the project.

During the two-year study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health, researchers will interview 40 HIV positive African-American men recruited from rural AIDS service organizations and clinics. Participants who have been diagnosed for at least six months will be interviewed about their disclosure decisions and the process of disclosing their HIV status.

Gaskins and Foster want to learn to whom the participants have disclosed their HIV diagnosis, what motivated them to disclose, the content of the disclosure message, and consequences and benefits of disclosure.

“The findings of this study will provide essential information for developing culturally relevant interventions to guide disclosure decisions which will be supportive of the health and quality of life of rural HIV-postive African-Americans,” Gaskins said. “These interventions will help educate health care providers and case workers as they assist individuals in managing their lives with HIV/AIDS.”

According to the HIV/AIDS fact sheet provided by the Centers for Disease Control, African-Americans are disproportionately represented among people with HIV/AIDS, accounting for 49 percent of the people with the disease, although they represent only 13 percent of the U.S. population. In the rural south, African-Americans account for 56 percent of all AIDS cases with men having the highest rate of HIV infection.

Living in rural areas compounds the problems associated with living with HIV/AIDS because of decreased or lack of services and resources, lack of transportation, and conservative cultural norms that result in shunning and stigmatization.

The purpose of this study is to explore the process and context of HIV disclosure by African-American men to partners and family, and the perceived health outcomes, benefits and consequences of the disclosures.