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I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia

INTRODUCTION: HIV-positive gay men continue to experience stigma related to sexual orientation and HIV status. Although resilience toward such stressors can be achieved, limited Australian research exists that examines how resilience is strengthened toward these dual stigmas. METHODS: A total of 20...

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Autores principales: Lucas, Neil A., Bates, Glen W., Buzwell, Simone
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10257188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37363353
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00829-9
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author Lucas, Neil A.
Bates, Glen W.
Buzwell, Simone
author_facet Lucas, Neil A.
Bates, Glen W.
Buzwell, Simone
author_sort Lucas, Neil A.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: HIV-positive gay men continue to experience stigma related to sexual orientation and HIV status. Although resilience toward such stressors can be achieved, limited Australian research exists that examines how resilience is strengthened toward these dual stigmas. METHODS: A total of 20 men from Melbourne, Australia, participated in semi-structured interviews between March and October 2019 to explore ways in which they manage such stigmas. RESULTS: Reflexive thematic analysis identified two primary themes: (1) “intrapersonal control,” which relates to individual mind set and lifestyle changes that participants utilized to strengthen resilience; (2) “systemic change,” which includes participants’ needs for better public health messaging. Findings show resilience was enhanced when proactive approaches to sexual orientation, HIV health appraisal, lifestyle changes, and social support were made. Further, outdated HIV awareness campaigns and a lack of current messaging regarding HIV transmission in the wider community were identified as inhibiting resilience development and promoting stigma among gay men. CONCLUSION: The results from this study show ways that Australian gay men strengthen their resilience through both intrapersonal (e.g., self-awareness, reappraisal, and self-efficacy) and external resources (e.g., education and public awareness) and how health care providers and social policy makers could better support the men to achieve this. SOCIAL-POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that targeted public health responses are required to compliment the advances made in biomedicine and viral suppression.
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spelling pubmed-102571882023-06-12 I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia Lucas, Neil A. Bates, Glen W. Buzwell, Simone Sex Res Social Policy Article INTRODUCTION: HIV-positive gay men continue to experience stigma related to sexual orientation and HIV status. Although resilience toward such stressors can be achieved, limited Australian research exists that examines how resilience is strengthened toward these dual stigmas. METHODS: A total of 20 men from Melbourne, Australia, participated in semi-structured interviews between March and October 2019 to explore ways in which they manage such stigmas. RESULTS: Reflexive thematic analysis identified two primary themes: (1) “intrapersonal control,” which relates to individual mind set and lifestyle changes that participants utilized to strengthen resilience; (2) “systemic change,” which includes participants’ needs for better public health messaging. Findings show resilience was enhanced when proactive approaches to sexual orientation, HIV health appraisal, lifestyle changes, and social support were made. Further, outdated HIV awareness campaigns and a lack of current messaging regarding HIV transmission in the wider community were identified as inhibiting resilience development and promoting stigma among gay men. CONCLUSION: The results from this study show ways that Australian gay men strengthen their resilience through both intrapersonal (e.g., self-awareness, reappraisal, and self-efficacy) and external resources (e.g., education and public awareness) and how health care providers and social policy makers could better support the men to achieve this. SOCIAL-POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that targeted public health responses are required to compliment the advances made in biomedicine and viral suppression. Springer US 2023-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10257188/ /pubmed/37363353 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00829-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Lucas, Neil A.
Bates, Glen W.
Buzwell, Simone
I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title_full I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title_fullStr I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title_full_unstemmed I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title_short I Am More than HIV: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors That Can Strengthen Resilience Among HIV-Positive Gay Men in Australia
title_sort i am more than hiv: a qualitative exploration of factors that can strengthen resilience among hiv-positive gay men in australia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10257188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37363353
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00829-9
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