Telephone surveys with national probability samples of English-speaking adults have suggested that popular support for punitive policies toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) declined in the 1990s, but AIDS-related stigma persists in the United States. Our aim was to assess the prevalence and impact of AIDS-related stigma in non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic communities. A cross-sectional computer-assisted telephone-interview survey was conducted in summer 2003 with African-American, Afro-Caribbean, Haitian, and Hispanic 18–39 year-old residents of 12 high AIDS-incidence areas in Broward County, Florida. Stigma items were adopted from national surveys, but interviews were conducted in Spanish and Haitian Creole as well as in English.
There is an increasing incidence of new HIV-1 diagnoses among black Caribbeans in the UK, but there has been limited research in this area. The LIVITY study is the first in-depth epidemiological and behavioural study to examine the impact of HIV among black Caribbeans in the UK. The UK black Caribbean community has traditionally been regarded as less likely to participate in clinical research and surveys.
