The Association of Emotional Support, HIV Stigma, and Home Environment With Disclosure Efficacy and Perceived Disclosure Outcomes in Young People Living With HIV in Zambia: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Rainier Masa, Mathias Zimba, Gilbert Zimba and 3 others
PMID 37994517WHAT IT FOUND
Among young people living with HIV in Zambia, emotional support was linked to fewer expected negative disclosure outcomes, home environment to greater disclosure confidence, and stigma to less confidence or more expected negative outcomes.
Key findings
01Higher emotional support was associated with lower expected negative outcomes after disclosing HIV status.
02A better home environment was associated with higher confidence about disclosing HIV status.
03Internalized stigma was associated with lower confidence about disclosing, and enacted stigma was associated with higher expected negative outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was recruited from two hospital HIV treatment sites and an ART enrollment list, so it does not represent young people living with HIV who are not in treatment, have dropped out, or live outside these districts. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that emotional support, home environment, or stigma caused changes in disclosure confidence or expected outcomes. The study did not collect data on self-disclosure with sexual partners, so it says little about partner disclosure. Some key variables had missing data, including 26% for instrumental support and 28% for emotional support, although multiple imputation was used. The scales were adapted from other settings and may not fully capture local HIV stigma or social support experiences.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the article text; the publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving emotional support or home environment will make young people disclose more or reduce negative outcomes. The study is cross-sectional and did not test an intervention, so it shows associations in a hospital-based sample, not cause and effect.