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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1356430
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Social Determinants in Epidemiology and Disease Prevention View all 5 articles

HIV-related stigma and associated factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Zelalem Dessie Zelalem Dessie 1*Temesgen Zewotir Temesgen Zewotir 2
  • 1 Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
  • 2 Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: It has been recognized that HIV-related stigma hinders efforts in testing, treatment, and prevention. In this systematic review, we aimed to summarize available findings on the association between risk of HIV stigma versus age, social support, educational status, depression, employment status, wealth index, gender, residence, knowledge about HIV, marital status, duration since diagnosed and disclosure status using a large dataset from a number of studies.Method: Electronic databases including Scopus, Medline/PubMed, Web of Sciences (WOS), Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Open Research Dataset Challenge were systematically searched till 15 April 2023. Regardless of language, publishing date, or geographic location, we included all forms of HIV-stigma studies. The inclusion criteria were met by 40 studies with a total of 171,627 patients. To pool the estimate and evaluate publication bias and sensitivity analysis, a mixed-effect model was used.Results: Significantly lowering the likelihood of HIV-related stigma included older age, social support, greater education, higher socioeconomic status, good knowledge of HIV, and longer years of living with HIV. On the other hand, depression, people living in rural, female respondents, and not disclosing their HIV status were significantly associated with a high risk of HIV-related stigma.To combat systemic HIV-associated stigma, developing wholesome and comprehensive social methods through community-level HIV awareness raising is crucial. In addition to activism, local economic development is crucial to creating thriving communities with strong social fabric.

    Keywords: Begg's test, effect size, Egger's test, heterogeneity, Funnel plot, Publication Bias, and sensitivity analysis. Li, et al. (64)

    Received: 15 Dec 2023; Accepted: 14 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dessie and Zewotir. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zelalem Dessie, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.