Mulheres negras e não negras vivendo com HIV ... - Nepaids - USP

Lopes, F. Black and non-Black women living with HIV/AIDS in São Paulo State: a
study on their vulnerabilities. São Paulo; 2003. [Doctoral dissertation – School of
Public Health of the University of São Paulo]
SUMMARY
Objective. Individual vulnerability is established in the context of intersubjective
relations. In this sense, the present study sought to compare vulnerability to recurrent
infections and illness among women living with HIV/AIDS. Methods. The study group
was composed of 1068 volunteers, over 18 years of age (526 non-Black and 542 Black
women) being attended by three public services, which are references for the treatment
of STD/AIDS within the State of Sao Paulo during the period between September 1999
and February 2000. The women learned of the study by face-to-face contact with the
reception staff in the waiting room and those who accepted to participate were asked to
sign an informed consent form. The Institutional Ethics Committees of the participating
centers approved the consent form and the study protocol. College-level female trained
performed interviews in private rooms. Data collection instrument was a semi structured
questionnaire that asked participant to express her experiences concerning different time
points in her life, especially after she was diagnosed as HIV-infected. Statistical analysis
was carried out using Pearson chi-squared test and their corresponding 95% confidence
intervals were calculated using the exact maximum likelihood estimates. Chi-squared
Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) log linear model was used to study the
relationship between variables. EpiInfo version 6.04, SPSS version 8.0 and Answer
Tree ® version 3.0 software were used. Results. The social conditions which most
strongly affected the individual vulnerability of Black women were: difficulties with
respect to access to formal education; less favorable living conditions; low individual
and family per capita income; responsibility for the care of a greater number of people;
problems with respect to diagnostic tests; difficulties with respect to access to
information on anti-retroviral therapy for newborns and reducing damage with the use
of injected drugs, difficulties in adopting protective behavior, such as the use of
condoms, less possibilities of accompaniment by other physicians besides the
gynecologist and the specialist in infectious diseases; less opportunities of receiving
nutritional orientation; less facilities in obtaining other medicines besides the cocktail.