HIV-related stigma and HIV disclosure among Latinos on the US-Mexico border

Abstract

Latinos in the USA have lower levels of disclosure and higher levels of HIV-related stigma when compared to non-Hispanic whites. However, the nature of the stigma-disclosure relation has not been fully explored. We hypothesize that the path between HIV-related stigma and disclosure may be through a mediating attitude toward disclosure. As a secondary hypothesis, we predicted differences in the strength of association that cognitive attitudes and affective attitudes share with disclosure. We interviewed 241 HIV-positive individuals on HAART at an outpatient clinic in El Paso, Texas, a large city that borders Mexico. The significant association between HIV-related stigma and HIV disclosure was fully mediated by attitudes toward disclosure. In addition, the differences between correlations (i.e., both affective and cognitive attitudes with disclosure behaviors) were statistically significant for family members and casual sex partners (Steiger's Z-test, Z = 5.15 and 2.54, ps