Discrimination towards PLWHA seeking medical service among medical and nursing students

ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of discrimination towards people living with human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS)(PLWHA)seeking medical service among medical and nursing students.MethodsA total of 449 medical and nursing students were selected with random and cluster sampling from 14 classes in Nantong University.The discrimination towards PLWHA seeking medical service was measured with a self-designed questionnaire.ResultsAmong the participants,the scores for 7 dimensions of discriminative attitude towards PLWHA in the case of providing medical service were 9.89±2.15 for addressing special concern,9.34±1.48 for excessive protection,8.72±1.65 for taking differential treatment,8.30±1.98 for compulsory notification,7.84±1.89 for compulsory test,6.98±1.98 for keeping a distance from a PLWHA,and 5.72±1.55 for unwilling or refusing to provide medical service,respectively.The determinants of the discriminative attitudes included age,gender,majoring,grade,residential province before into the university,clinical practice experience in medical institution,with relevant training on AIDS,with relatives or friends engaged in medical service,the knowledge about the transmission of HIV,degree of fear of HIV infection,attitude towards HIV infected colleague,stigmatization to PLWHA,and the awareness of PLWHA's right to seek medication(P<0.01 or P<0.05).ConclusionThere are discriminative attitudes towards PLWHA seeking medical service among medical and nursing students and the discriminations of the students mainly associate with the fear of HIV infection,stigmatization to PLWHA,and attitude towards HIV infected colleague.