Elaine Schmidt ([email protected]) (310) 794-0777
UCLA RESEARCHERS FIND HIV-INFECTED WOMEN OFTEN DO NOT RECEIVE DIAGNOSIS OR MEDICAL CARE DUE TO FALSE CULTURAL STEREOTYPES
HIV-infected women often fail to receive diagnosis or medical care because they do not fit clinicians' cultural stereotypes regarding who is at risk, report researchers from UCLA and other universities in the first special journal issue published by the American Psychological Association to focus on women and AIDS.
Entitled Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, the journal issue emphasizes that the clinical and behavioral needs of women with HIV grow more complex when studying HIV-positive women from various ethnic groups.
"We found that medical professionals were significantly less likely to offer white or Asian women an HIV test or to ask them about their sexual history," explained Gail Wyatt, Ph.D, associate director of behavioral health for the UCLA AIDS Institute and co-editor of the issue. "Yet white women are the most likely to be infected for the longest period of time - an average of 63 months."
"Similarly, the Asian women in our study rarely received early treatment for HIV," said Dorothy Chin, Ph.D, a UCLA psychologist and issue co-editor. "As a result, they did not enter the healthcare system until they developed full-blown AIDS, significantly undermining their chances for survival."
While new cases of HIV infection have declined in gay men, the number of women infected by heterosexual contact has risen 243 percent in the past five years. According to the Centers for Disease Control, AIDS is now the number-three killer of American women.
UCLA researchers surveyed 400 women aged 18 to 62 in Los Angeles County twice a year in a five-year study funded by the Office on AIDS at the National Institute of Mental Health. The study matched HIV-positive participants with an HIV-negative cohort of the same age, ethnicity, marital status, number of children, education and income level. The diverse sample included HIV-infected women who are physicians, attorneys, media personalities and millionaires.
What UCLA investigators learned showed dramatic contrasts to previous studies that focused on HIV-positive men:
* Seventy percent of the HIV-positive women in the study believe they contracted the disease from their husband or committed partner. Twenty percent reported becoming infected from blood transfusions or accidental needle sticks. Only 10 percent cited intravenous drug use as the origin of their infection.
* One in 10 of the HIV-infected women in the study did not take medication to control her disease, either due to her clinician not offering the drugs or to non-compliance. More than half of the women in this group were African American.
* Among HIV-infected women in the study, 33 percent of Latinas already had progressed to full-blown AIDS with opportunistic infections, compared to 29 percent for African Americans, 25 percent for whites, seven percent for American Indians and three percent for Asians. The UCLA findings suggest that these women did not know they were infected, preventing them from obtaining medical care early in their illness.
* Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian women rarely seek needed medical care in their community, because they fear the stigma associated with HIV infection. They feel a need to seek treatment where they will not be recognized.
* Most women learned of their HIV status after taking an HIV test due to pregnancy, a job or insurance change, or after their partner became ill.
* One in three women acknowledged a current or past relationship with a man who physically battered her, compromising her ability to practice safe sex.
"Clearly, we can't generalize what we've learned about AIDS from men to women - or from one ethnic group to another," said Chin. "These studies show that each culture possesses unique disease-related issues."
"There's no uniform message that medical professionals can give women," added Wyatt. "Unlike with men, it's not just about using condoms. Many HIV-positive women are married and want to have children. We need to identify how to address their needs while preventing them from infecting their loved ones."
-UCLA-
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