Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Discriminatory Attitudes of Pharmacy Students and Pharmacists against People Living with HIV/AIDS

Chukwuemeka Michael Ubaka , Maxwell Ogochukwu Adibe, Chinwe Victoria Ukwe

Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Management, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria;

For correspondence:- Chukwuemeka Ubaka Email: pharmubk@yahoo.com Tel:+2348038246913

Received: 3 November 2012 Accepted: 7 January 2014 Published: 20 February 2014

Citation: Ubaka CM, Adibe MO, Ukwe CV. Discriminatory Attitudes of Pharmacy Students and Pharmacists against People Living with HIV/AIDS. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(2):295-302 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i2.20

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the level and predictors of discriminatory attitudes of pharmacy students and pharmacists towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of pharmacy students and pharmacists (n = 523) to assess discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHA was conducted using a self completed questionnaire. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted.

Results: Pharmacists were more knowledgeable and had less negative perceptions than students towards PLWHA. Level of professional training (p < 0.0001), knowledge status (p < 0.0001) and five negative perception items, namely, (a) people who got HIV through sex deserve it (p = 0.003), (b) PLWHA would make their colleagues apprehensive (p < 0.0001), (c) PLWHA have poor hygiene (r = 0.082, p = 0.032), (d) PLWHA should feel ashamed of themselves (p < 0.0001), and (e) people who behave promiscuously should be blamed for AIDS (p = 0.031), were all significantly associated with higher discrimination. However, being a student and having negative perceptions such as “PLWHA should feel ashamed of themselves and “PLWHA would make their colleagues apprehensive” were independent predictors of discrimination.

Conclusions: Discriminatory attitudes against PLWHA among pharmacy students and pharmacists who participated in this study were high and level of training and their perceptions were contributory.

Keywords: Discrimination, HIV/AIDS, Pharmacists, Perception, Professionalism, Stigmatization