The Correlation between Perception of Stigma of HIV/AIDS and Utilization of Voluntary Counseling and Testing and Care, Support and Treatment Polyclinic at Djoelham Hospital, Binjai

Abstract

Background: The health care services for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH; hereinafter is referred to as PLWHA) at Polyclinic of Vo­luntary Counselling and Testing (hereinafter is referred to as VCT) and Care, Support and Treat­ment (hereinafter is referred to as CST) are not optimally utilized because of the large number of Follow-Up Loss by PLWHA. The utilization of the services in 2018 was only 47% of the determined target of 90%. The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of individual characteristics such as age, sex, education level, marital status, and perception of HIV/AIDS negative stigma on the utilization of health services for HIV/AIDS at Polyclinic of VCT and CST. Subjects and Method: This is a cross-sectional study. The population was all visitors at the Poly­clinic who were diagnosed with HIV not later than March, 2018. Sixty eight patients were selec­ted by using total sampling technique. The inde­pen­dent variables consisted of individual charac­te­ris­tics (age, sex, education level, marital status) and perception of HIV/AIDS negative stigma, whereas the dependent variables were the utilization of VCT and CST Polyclinic. The data were collected through questionnaires and were analyzed by multiple logistic regression method. Results: the perception of high negative stigma of HIV/AIDS has led PLWHA to underutilize the health services of VCT and CST Polyclinic (OR= 18.20; 95%CI= 3.89 to 85.19; p< 0.001). The male PLWHA underutilized the health care ser­vi­ces at VCT and CST Polyclinic (OR= 4.91; 95%CI=1.19 to 20.23; p= 0.028). Conclusion: the perception of high negative stigma of HIV/AIDS and being a male PLWHA allowed the underutilization of the health services at VCT and CST Polyclinic. Keywords: perception of stigma, HIV, utiliza­tion Correspondence: Ratih Sufra Rizkani. A Student at Master Program of Public Health Faculty in University of Sumatera Utara, Medan. ratih86rizkani@gmail.com. Mobile: 0852617­76718 Journal of Health Promotion and Behavior (2020), 5(1): 26-34 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejhpb.2020.05.01.04