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Measurement of Stigma (Discriminating Attitudes) [message #27419]

Thu, 10 August 2023 02:44

Yawo
Messages: 45
Registered: February 2019

Member

Dear All:

I am writing for some certainty on current/approved measures of stimga in DHS. Most DHS surveys gauge accepting attitudes to HIV using the following questions.

1. Would you buy fresh vegetables from a shopkeeper or vendor if you knew that this person had HIV?

2. If a member of your family became sick with AIDS, would you be willing to care for her or him in your own household?

3. In your opinion, if a female teacher has the AIDS virus, but is not sick, should she be allowed to continue teaching in the school?

4. If a member of your family got infected with the AIDS virus, would you want it to remain a secret or not?

However, owing to recent analysis and commentaries (
Cordes JL, Stangl A, Krishnaratne S, Hoddinott G, Mathema H, Bond V, Seeley J, Hargreaves JR. Trends in Responses to DHS Questions Should Not Be Interpreted as Reflecting an Increase in "Anticipated Stigma" in Africa. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 May 1;75(1):e22-e23. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001328. PMID: 28225436; PMCID: PMC5402691.), it appears as if questions 2 and 4 are no longer deemed reliable estimates of discriminatory attitudes. Instead, as DHS-7 shows, the focus is on these two variables:

-- Should children living with HIV be able to attend school with children who do not have HIV?
-- Would you buy fresh vegetables from a shopkeeper or vendor if you knew that this person had HIV?

What of the remaining question, "In your opinion, if a female teacher has the AIDS virus, but is not sick, should she be allowed to continue teaching in the school?" I am inclined to include it in a measure of discriminatory attitudes, given that all three variables exhibit high internal consistency (alpha=0.84).

Please, advise if we should be using these 3 questions to measure discriminatory attitudes or just the two included in DHS-7.

Thanks - cY

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Re: Measurement of Stigma (Discriminating Attitudes) [message #27491 is a reply to message #27419]

Mon, 21 August 2023 13:14

Janet-DHS
Messages: 901
Registered: April 2022

Senior Member

Following is a response from DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:

Glad that you are using these variables and are taking account of previous analyses and scalability. DHS staff cannot take a position on which items you should use, but the large alpha is encouraging.

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