Work

Discrimination and misconceptions about human immunodeficiency virus among gay and bisexual men.

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Despite improvements in structural and biomedical interventions to stop the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), gay and bisexual men continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV. One potential barrier to the uptake of HIV health care services is misconception about HIV prevention. Given high levels of societal stigma related to HIV and homophobia, we grounded the current study in the Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework and proposed that experiences of everyday discrimination would be associated with the endorsement of stigmatizing misconceptions about HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men. We also examined whether comfort with health care providers would mediate such association and whether differences by race and ethnicity existed. METHOD: = 293) completed a survey between 2017 and 2018 assessing everyday experiences of discrimination, comfort with health care providers, misconceptions about HIV prevention, and demographics. RESULTS: = .002). Latine men had overall greater levels of misconceptions about HIV prevention regardless of discrimination experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Given the pervasiveness of discrimination, stigma-reduction interventions will be pivotal in redressing the HIV epidemic and should be implemented alongside other culturally sensitive HIV reduction strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Source: Health Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/hea0001474

Authors: Manuel F. Ramirez, A. Janet Tomiyama, Patrick A. Wilson

Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health