Henrike Körner

Augustine Asante

HIV knowledge, attitudes and use of health services among people from culturally and

linguistically diverse backgrounds

What is the study about?

Aim:

To survey periodically HIV knowledge, perceptions and use of health services among people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds

Pilot study:

Is it possible to recruit sufficiently large samples for a behavioural survey?

Test questionnaire

Four priority communities:

2 Asian (Thai, Cambodian)

2 African (Ethiopian, Sudanese)

Recruitment target: 300

Total recruited: 286

recruited over a period of 4 months

Self-completed questionnaire: English or native language

Age of respondents

Gender

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese Total

Priority community

Perc

ent

Male

Female

USE OF HEALTH SERVICES

Frequency of using health services

Views about routine health checks

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Important Not important Ever had routine health check

Never had routine health check

Perc

en

t

Views

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese

Potential barriers to using health services

HIV knowledge and awareness

Level of HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness: High awareness across all communities - over 90%

have heard about AIDS and HIV

Exception : Few Cambodians (15.5%) know about AIDS but not about HIV

Sources of HIV/AIDS information: 82.9% - heard about HIV/AIDS recently from the media

(radio, TV, newspapers & magazines)

8.7% - heard about HIV/AIDS through friends/ relatives and community meetings

Knowledge of HIV transmission & protection methods

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Traditional mode{Needles, sex, blood,

mother-to-child}

Misconceptions{Handshake, sharingclothes, mosquitoes,

etc.}

Other mode Traditional methods{Condom alw ays,abstinence, avoidsharing needles}

Condom sometimes Misconceptions{Praying to God,avoid eating c IP,

avoid mosquitoes}

Other methods

Transmission M ode & Protection M ethods

Thai

Cambodian

Ethiopian

Sudanese

Perceptions of HIV infection risk (Who can get HIV?)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Don't know

Technocrats

Married men/w omen

Prostitutes/gay men

Everybody

Response

Percent

Sudanese

Ethiopian

Cambodian

Thai

Views about HIV testing and actual testing for HIV

0 20 40 60 80 100

Never tested

Tested

Don't Know

Not important

Important

Response

Percent

Sudanese

Ethiopian

Cambodian

Thai

Stigma and Discriminations: Views about PLWHA

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

Don't Know

Negative view s

Positive view s

Views

Percent

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese

How should people with HIV/AIDS be treated?

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0

Don't know

Treated w ithsympathy

Treated w ithdisrespect, isolated..

Treated w ith respect

Response

Percent

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese

Disclosure of HIV status

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0

Don't know

Should not discloseto other people

Should disclose toother people

Don't know

Should not discloseto sexual partners

Should disclose tosexual partners

Response

Percent

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese

HIV and shame

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Don't know

Don't bring shame tothemselves/families

Bring shame tothemselves/families

Response

Percent

Thai Cambodian Ethiopian Sudanese

Conclusion

Contrary to common believe, CALD communities are ready to engage with HIV prevention and social research into HIV

Essential: participation of ethnic communities in research process

Importance of native language to research participants

Heterogeneity of CALD communities and categories ‘Asian’ and ‘African’

Acknowledgements

Tadgh McMahon, Wa’el Sabri, Barbara Luisi, Multicultural HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C Service

The Thai, Cambodia, Sudanese and Ethiopian co-workers of the Multicultural HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C Service

The Thai, Cambodian and African reference groups

The 286 participants who completed the questionnaire

NSW Health for funding