Experiences of HIV disclosure in the North East of England
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Grounded Theory Exploration of experiences of HIV status disclosure in the North East of England.
IRAS ID
279251
Contact name
Sarah Craven-Staines
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of HIV status disclosure of people living with HIV (PLWH) and address gaps in the literature in this area. In the context of HIV, disclosure refers to information regarding a person’s HIV status being transmitted by any means by the person themselves or by a third party, with or without consent (UNAIDS, & World Health Organisation, 2000; WHO). In addition to infection prevention, disclosure can increase opportunities for PLWH to find support and can promote wellbeing (Smith, Rosetto & Peterson, 2008). However, HIV status disclosure can also be detrimental to a person's wellbeing as people living with HIV continue to experience stigma and discrimination (Hibbert et al., 2015).
Research conducted so far suggests that the quality of the relationship is important in disclosure decisions, men who have sex with men (MSM) may disclose more than heterosexual men and women and to different people, and that MSM often choose not to disclose their status to casual sex partners, especially when they have an undetectable viral load. However, some of the limitations of these studies are that MSM’s experiences are heavily represented and few studies consider disclosure outside of intimate relationships. These studies also do not give us any information about how PLWH decide to disclose, how they make disclosures and, other than the quality of the relationship, what is related to positive and negative disclosure outcomes. Therefore, this study will address these gaps by conducting a grounded theory exploration of the disclosure experiences of PLWH with no exclusion criteria based on sexuality and to explore different social relationships (i.e. intimate, family, friends, employers, and healthcare). It is hoped that this study will develop a model of disclosure to inform best practice when supporting PLWH around their disclosure decisions and experiences. This study will be the first conducted in the UK to develop a model of disclosure in a wider variety of relationship types.REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
20/SS/0113
Date of REC Opinion
7 Dec 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion