Stigma and coping practices among women living with HIV in Hanoi, 2022

Abstract

A cross - sectional descriptive study was conducted on 91 women living with HIV in Hanoi in 2022 to explore the HIV-related stigma and their coping strategies. The study resulted that while the majority of women presented positive attitudes and practices towards stigma, they strongly percieved societal discrimination against HIV infected women (the average scores of the components of awareness, agreement and application were 19.8 ± 6.0, 20.7 ± 6.0, and 30.5 ± 10.4, respectively). Concerning coping with stigma, not all women with proactive perceptions took proactive actions. The more women living with HIV agreed with negative views about themselves or their peer group in the components of agreement and application, the less likely they tended to have proactive cognitive and behavioral coping with stigma. These findings are valuable for developing interventions to reduce stigma and enhance coping abilities among women living with HIV.