Psychosocial determinants of self-disclosure of HIV positive status

Joel Adeleke Afolayan, Adelani

Abstract

Disclosure of HIV+ status is an important prevention goal and it offers a number of important benefits to the infected individual and to the general public. Disclosure of HIV test result is associated with less anxiety and increased support. HIV status disclosure may also lead to improved access to HIV prevention and treatment programmes, increased opportunities for risk reduction and increased opportunities to plan for the future. This study looked into psychosocial determinants of self-disclosure of HIV+ status; it is a simple survey study seeking for responses from the participants. Self-reporting questionnaire drawn on the factors affecting self-disclosure of HIV+ status, One hundred participants were conveniently selected for the study; five hypotheses were formulated and tested at the significant level of 0.05 using multiple regression method of statistics. The findings about HIV/AIDS, cultural influences, illiteracy level and anxiety, stigma and discrimination were some of the factors identified as militating against self-disclosure of HIV+ status. It is recommended that health education should be used to create aggressive awareness about the benefits of disclosure of HIV+ status.