408P
EXPLORING SOCIOECONOMIC, SPIRITUAL AND FAMILY SUPPORT AMONG WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS IN INDIA
B Majumdar
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Objectives: Poor social conditions, a lack of testing facilities and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS have rendered social issues concerning the disease a largely ignored area of research in India. Infection rates are rising rapidly among women in the country; this study aims to explore HIV/AIDS as a multifaceted issue in India, and to explore the feelings, concerns and behavioural characteristics of HIV-positive women in India, regarding socio-economic, spiritual and family supports that are presently available to them.
Methods: Qualitative research methods were used, in an attempt to stay as close as possible to the actual behavioural experience of the participants. With the help of a local NGO, a convenience sample of ten HIV-positive women was recruited from urban and rural settings in India. Audiotaped conversations were held with participants in their native language, Bengali, using an open-ended interview guide based on pre-existing questionnaires. Interviewers were selected from a local women's NGO, and trained in interview techniques prior to the interview sessions.
Results: One of the primary factors related to HIV transmission among the women in this study was their low social status. Additionally, extreme poverty, sexual violence, exacerbated physical and mental health conditions, ability to cope with HIV-positive status and deteriorating, isolative social networks all have and continue to be confounding factors facilitating the transmission and spread of disease, and poor living conditions plaguing women living with AIDS in India.
Conclusions: Health care professionals in India must adopt more comprehensive HIV-prevention agendas aimed at educating, empowering and fostering autonomy in their female patients. Also, this study examined women of low social status, whose life experiences are very different from women from middle and upper classes; the prevalence of the caste system in India necessitates further study of similar issues within these other populations.