Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)

School

Public Health

Advisor

Peter Anderson

Abstract

Researchers have considered HIV/AIDS in Kenya as the largest HIV pandemic in the world, with about 6.3 million individuals living with the disease as of 2013. About 25% of new HIV patients are adult women, aged 15 to 24 years old. Guided by the health belief model (HBM), the purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional survey research study was to explore the influence of various dimensions of HIV/AIDS stigma (public, self, enacted, and structural) on the uptake of HIV testing among Kenyan Diaspora women in United States. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test if there was a correlation between HIV/AIDS stigma and the uptake of HIV testing on Kenyan Diaspora women. Preliminary analyses showed the relationships were approximately linear with the residuals normally distributed, as assessed by skewness and kurtosis statistics, and there were no outliers. The results for these four research questions were not significant. The results of the study indicated that perceived levels of stigma among Kenyan Diaspora women living with HIV/AIDS did not correlate with differing levels of uptake for testing and treatment. This study promoted positive social change through encouraging HIV testing by raising awareness and understanding about HIV/AIDS, especially during the early stages of the disease. Thus, promoting positive social change in encouraging Kenyan Diaspora women to engage in HIV testing to ensure they were safe for sexual encounters or to breastfeed their children. Similar studies could carry out research to examine the influence of factors other than stigma on uptake of testing and treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS.

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