Factors affecting discrimination toward people with HIV/AIDS in Sarawak, Malaysia

Introduction: The issue of discrimination is related not only to people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (PLWH), but also the community around them. The study aimed to determine the perceived level of discrimination toward people with HIV/AIDS among the adult people in Sarawak, Malaysia and also to determine the factors associated with it. Material and methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted in rural areas of Sarawak. A total of 900 adults aged 18 years and above were selected by gender-stratified multistage cluster sampling technique. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using interviewer-guided questionnaires. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 22.0 to identify the factors associated with HIV/AIDS-related discrimination towards PLWH. A p -value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The mean (SD) age for male and female respondents was 41.57 (13.45) and 38.99 (13.09) years respectively. The composite mean score for total discrimination was higher among female (mean = 2.66, SD = 0.6) than male (mean = 2.47, SD = 0.6) respondents. Domain-wise discrimination of HIV/AIDS found that isolation, verbal discrimination, loss of resources, loss of services and total discrimination were significantly high among the females ( p < 0.05) compared to males. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that ethnicity, religion, knowledge on HIV, an acquaintance of HIV and household income appeared to be potential predictors for discrimination towards peoples living with HIV/AIDS ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: HIV/AIDS-related discrimination towards 0 coexisted among the community in Sarawak, and this called for a specific socio-culturally accepted intervention to eliminate the discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.