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Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana

OBJECTIVE: HIV-related stigma still remains a major barrier to testing and a significant burden for people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates how mobile phone ownership can influence HIV-related stigma. DESIGN: This is an observational study using both cross-sectio...

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Autores principales: Iacoella, Francesco, Gassmann, Franziska, Tirivayi, Nyasha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36351734
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062594
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author Iacoella, Francesco
Gassmann, Franziska
Tirivayi, Nyasha
author_facet Iacoella, Francesco
Gassmann, Franziska
Tirivayi, Nyasha
author_sort Iacoella, Francesco
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: HIV-related stigma still remains a major barrier to testing and a significant burden for people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates how mobile phone ownership can influence HIV-related stigma. DESIGN: This is an observational study using both cross-sectional and pseudo-panel data. Analysis is conducted at both community and individual levels. SETTING: The analysis is run for the country of Ghana using data from 2008 and 2014. PARTICIPANTS: Individual-level and household-level data were obtained from Ghana’s Demographic and Health Survey. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The analysis measures the impact of mobile phone ownership on prejudice against people with HIV. Secondary outcomes are knowledge of HIV, which is included as a mediating element. RESULTS: Community-level analysis finds that a 10% increase in the share of mobile phone owners reduces the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes towards PLWH/AIDS by up to 3%. Results are consistent at the individual level. Additionally, mobile phone-enabled HIV knowledge is found to mediate about 26% of the effect of mobile phones on public stigma. CONCLUSIONS: These findings shed light on the role played by access to mobile technology on HIV-related stigma and discrimination and can support the development of future awareness raising and health communication campaigns in Ghana and other West African countries.
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spelling pubmed-96443272022-11-15 Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana Iacoella, Francesco Gassmann, Franziska Tirivayi, Nyasha BMJ Open HIV/AIDS OBJECTIVE: HIV-related stigma still remains a major barrier to testing and a significant burden for people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates how mobile phone ownership can influence HIV-related stigma. DESIGN: This is an observational study using both cross-sectional and pseudo-panel data. Analysis is conducted at both community and individual levels. SETTING: The analysis is run for the country of Ghana using data from 2008 and 2014. PARTICIPANTS: Individual-level and household-level data were obtained from Ghana’s Demographic and Health Survey. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The analysis measures the impact of mobile phone ownership on prejudice against people with HIV. Secondary outcomes are knowledge of HIV, which is included as a mediating element. RESULTS: Community-level analysis finds that a 10% increase in the share of mobile phone owners reduces the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes towards PLWH/AIDS by up to 3%. Results are consistent at the individual level. Additionally, mobile phone-enabled HIV knowledge is found to mediate about 26% of the effect of mobile phones on public stigma. CONCLUSIONS: These findings shed light on the role played by access to mobile technology on HIV-related stigma and discrimination and can support the development of future awareness raising and health communication campaigns in Ghana and other West African countries. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9644327/ /pubmed/36351734 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062594 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle HIV/AIDS
Iacoella, Francesco
Gassmann, Franziska
Tirivayi, Nyasha
Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title_full Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title_fullStr Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title_short Impact of mobile phones on HIV public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from Ghana
title_sort impact of mobile phones on hiv public stigma: a cross-sectional and pseudo-panel analysis from ghana
topic HIV/AIDS
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36351734
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062594
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