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Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe

BACKGROUND: A growing number of studies highlight men's disinclination to make use of HIV services. This suggests there are factors that prevent men from engaging with health services and an urgent need to unpack the forms of sociality that determine men's acceptance or rejection of HIV se...

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Autores principales: Skovdal, Morten, Campbell, Catherine, Madanhire, Claudius, Mupambireyi, Zivai, Nyamukapa, Constance, Gregson, Simon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107786/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21575149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-7-13
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author Skovdal, Morten
Campbell, Catherine
Madanhire, Claudius
Mupambireyi, Zivai
Nyamukapa, Constance
Gregson, Simon
author_facet Skovdal, Morten
Campbell, Catherine
Madanhire, Claudius
Mupambireyi, Zivai
Nyamukapa, Constance
Gregson, Simon
author_sort Skovdal, Morten
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A growing number of studies highlight men's disinclination to make use of HIV services. This suggests there are factors that prevent men from engaging with health services and an urgent need to unpack the forms of sociality that determine men's acceptance or rejection of HIV services. METHODS: Drawing on the perspectives of 53 antiretroviral drug users and 25 healthcare providers, we examine qualitatively how local constructions of masculinity in rural Zimbabwe impact on men's use of HIV services. RESULTS: Informants reported a clear and hegemonic notion of masculinity that required men to be and act in control, to have know-how, be strong, resilient, disease free, highly sexual and economically productive. However, such traits were in direct conflict with the 'good patient' persona who is expected to accept being HIV positive, take instructions from nurses and engage in health-enabling behaviours such as attending regular hospital visits and refraining from alcohol and unprotected extra-marital sex. This conflict between local understandings of manhood and biopolitical representations of 'a good patient' can provide a possible explanation to why so many men do not make use of HIV services in Zimbabwe. However, once men had been counselled and had the opportunity to reflect upon the impact of ART on their productivity and social value, it was possible for some to construct new and more ART-friendly versions of masculinity. CONCLUSION: We urge HIV service providers to consider the obstacles that prevent many men from accessing their services and argue for community-based and driven initiatives that facilitate safe and supportive social spaces for men to openly discuss social constructions of masculinity as well as renegotiate more health-enabling masculinities.
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spelling pubmed-31077862011-06-04 Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe Skovdal, Morten Campbell, Catherine Madanhire, Claudius Mupambireyi, Zivai Nyamukapa, Constance Gregson, Simon Global Health Research BACKGROUND: A growing number of studies highlight men's disinclination to make use of HIV services. This suggests there are factors that prevent men from engaging with health services and an urgent need to unpack the forms of sociality that determine men's acceptance or rejection of HIV services. METHODS: Drawing on the perspectives of 53 antiretroviral drug users and 25 healthcare providers, we examine qualitatively how local constructions of masculinity in rural Zimbabwe impact on men's use of HIV services. RESULTS: Informants reported a clear and hegemonic notion of masculinity that required men to be and act in control, to have know-how, be strong, resilient, disease free, highly sexual and economically productive. However, such traits were in direct conflict with the 'good patient' persona who is expected to accept being HIV positive, take instructions from nurses and engage in health-enabling behaviours such as attending regular hospital visits and refraining from alcohol and unprotected extra-marital sex. This conflict between local understandings of manhood and biopolitical representations of 'a good patient' can provide a possible explanation to why so many men do not make use of HIV services in Zimbabwe. However, once men had been counselled and had the opportunity to reflect upon the impact of ART on their productivity and social value, it was possible for some to construct new and more ART-friendly versions of masculinity. CONCLUSION: We urge HIV service providers to consider the obstacles that prevent many men from accessing their services and argue for community-based and driven initiatives that facilitate safe and supportive social spaces for men to openly discuss social constructions of masculinity as well as renegotiate more health-enabling masculinities. BioMed Central 2011-05-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3107786/ /pubmed/21575149 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-7-13 Text en Copyright ©2011 Skovdal et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Skovdal, Morten
Campbell, Catherine
Madanhire, Claudius
Mupambireyi, Zivai
Nyamukapa, Constance
Gregson, Simon
Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title_full Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title_short Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
title_sort masculinity as a barrier to men's use of hiv services in zimbabwe
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107786/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21575149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-7-13
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