“Like i just got a death sentence”: conditions affecting women's reactions to being told their hiv antibody test results and the impact on access to care

Abstract

HIV and AIDS case surveillance continues to reflect the disproportionate impact of the epidemic on racial/ethnic minority populations, especially women, youth and children. The HIV antibody test is the standard method for identifying people with HIV and the primary prevention model to promote treatment and the reduction of HIV transmission. Given the incidence of HIV in women, it is important to understand the conditions under which women receive and interpret the results of their positive HIV antibody tests, in order to promote access to and continued health care. Our study demonstrates that how individuals are told the results of their HIV antibody test and what pre- and post-counseling is given, if any, can influence individuals' medical care and prevention of transmission of HIV to others. The important issue, it seems, for post-test counseling and accessing HIV health care is to address women's multiple social issues of poverty, drug rehabilitation, if needed, shame, and stigmatization of women with HIV, especially HIV positive mothers. Most women lack HIV education; they need referrals and assistance accessing and continuing health care, unless they have stable health care relationships. Analysis suggests, though the sample is too small to conclude, that issues of class, perhaps more than race/ethnicity and gender, though these are analyzed as interconnected, influence how women are told their results and their subsequent reactions and actions. Our study suggests that there may be little relationship between mandated state policies and counseling and testing practices. Policy sets standards. But how policies are implemented can be dependent on multiple conditions including counselors' training, resources of time, HIV knowledge, social support, knowledge of gender, race/ethnicity and social class, and women's social, cultural, emotional and physical health needs.

Citation

Barnes, D.B., Alforque, A. and Carter, K. (2000), "“Like i just got a death sentence”: conditions affecting women's reactions to being told their hiv antibody test results and the impact on access to care", Jacobs Kronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Health, Illness, and use of Care: The Impact of Social Factors (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0275-4959(00)80020-4