Attitudes and barriers to employment in HIV-positive patients

Abstract

There are opportunities for HIV services to provide psychological support around attitudes associated with unemployment and to help HIV-positive men in particular obtain and remain in work.

Work-related stigma and disclosure: A daily challenge for people living with HIV

“…The level of disclosure to employers/colleagues was reported in six studies and ranged from 22-50% [21][22][23][24][25][26]. In two studies a comparison was made between employers and colleagues [21]; the conclusion was that the level of disclosure to the employer is lower than that to colleagues (22-27% vs. 30-33%).…”

“…age, gender, ethnicity, disease-related factors, and characteristics of the workplace [21][22][23][24][25][26]; these are described below. • Reasons for non-disclosure: privacy, not relevant for work, fear for stigma (main reason) • Some participants were not sure whether they were obliged to disclose at work.…”

“…Three studies investigated ethnicity [23,25,27]; all concluded that a black African ethnic background was associated with a lower level of disclosure.…”

“…Five studies described that fear of stigma is one of the main reasons for nondisclosure [24,25,[28][29][30]. Also limited disclosure (to only one, or a few colleagues) can be an important strategy to avoid stigma [30].…”

“…Three studies reported the level of perceived stigma at work; this ranged from 6-11% [25,26,31]. One study reported that over two-thirds of PLWH reported that they were not allowed to go to a medical appointment during working hours without losing payment, which might be considered as stigma [26].…”