Georgia State University
ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Public Health Theses
School of Public Health
5-15-2010
A Comparative Analysis of the Attitudes towards People Living with HIV/AIDS between Haiti and the Dominican Republic Georges Perrin Georgia State University
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/iph_theses Recommended Citation Perrin, Georges, "A Comparative Analysis of the Attitudes towards People Living with HIV/AIDS between Haiti and the Dominican Republic." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010. http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/iph_theses/87
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ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: HIV-related stigmatizing attitudes are persistent concerns in developing countries and have been shown to fuel the spread of the epidemics. The purpose of this study is to provide a comparative analysis between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in regards to the population’s attitude towards People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the Demographic Health Surveys involving 15,715 Haitians and 55,170 Dominicans from 2005 to 2007 were used. A score of attitudes was established from six items such as the willingness to care for infected relatives, the willingness to buy vegetables from an HIV infected vendor, the perception that HIV patients should be ashamed of themselves, the agreement to blame and force them to keep their serostatus secret and finally the agreement to allow infected teachers to continue their jobs. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analyses of selected socio-demographic variables were obtained by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). RESULTS: Logistic regression models showed that female Dominicans and male Haitians, respondents of higher socio-economic status and with more accurate HIVrelated beliefs were significantly more tolerant towards PLWHA (p
