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Individual- and community-level determinants of social acceptance of people living with HIV in Kenya: Results from a national population-based survey
Authors: Chi Chiao, Vinod Mishra, William Sambisa
Source: Health and Place, Volume 15, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 712-720
Topic(s): Accepting attitudes toward people living with HIV (PLHIV)
HIV/AIDS
Country: Africa
  Kenya
Published: SEP 2009
Abstract: Abstract Using the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, we investigated the influence of individual- and community-level factors on accepting attitudes toward people living with HIV (PLHIV) using three outcomes: (1) willingness to care for an infected household member, (2) willingness to buy vegetables from an infected vendor, and (3) willingness to allow an infected female teacher to continue teaching. In multilevel logistic regression models, we found that individuals who expressed greater acceptance of PLHIV were more likely to be male, older, more educated, high AIDS knowledge, and exposed to mass media. At the community level, differences in accepting attitudes were associated with community AIDS knowledge, community education, and community AIDS experience, but not for region, or place of residence. The findings suggest the important role of community factors in determining social acceptance of PLHIV. Programmatic strategies aimed at increasing these accepting attitudes should consider both individual- and community-level factors. Keywords: Accepting attitudes; People living with HIV (PLHIV); Individual-level effects; Community-level effects; Kenya; Demographic and health survey