Do Customers Flee From HIV? A Survey of HIV Stigma and Its Potential Economic Consequences on Small Businesses in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa

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• 作者：Li-Wei Chao ; Helena Szrek ; Rui Leite ; Shandir Ramlagan ; Karl Peltzer
• 关键词：HIV stigma ; Infection risk ; Quality of life ; Consequences of stigma ; Small businesses
• 刊名：AIDS and Behavior
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：21
• 期：1
• 页码：217-226
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Medicine
• 刊物主题：Public Health; Health Psychology; Infectious Diseases;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-3254
• 卷排序：21

文摘

HIV stigma and discrimination affect care-seeking behavior and may also affect entrepreneurial activity. We interview 2382 individuals in Pretoria, South Africa, and show that respondents believe that businesses with known HIV+ workers may lose up to half of their customers, although the impact depends on the type of business. Survey respondents’ fear of getting HIV from consuming everyday products sold by the business—despite a real infection risk of zero—was a major factor driving perceived decline in customers, especially among food businesses. Respondents’ perceptions of the decline in overall life satisfaction when one gets sick from HIV and the respondent’s dislike of people with HIV were also important predictors of potential customer exit. We suggest policy mechanisms that could improve the earnings potential of HIV+ workers: reducing public health scare tactics that exacerbate irrational fear of HIV infection risk and enriching public health education about HIV and ARVs to improve perceptions about people with HIV.