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Instrument Title

HIV/AIDS Stigma Scale for Puerto Rican health professionals in training

View PDF - Stigma scale for Puerto Rican health professionals_Varas Diaz.pdf

Source Article

N. Varas-Diaz., & Neilandsb, T. B. (2009). Development and validation of a culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS stigma scale for Puerto Rican health professionals in training. AIDS Care, 21(10), 1259-1270.

Response Options

5 point Likert scale with responses ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

Survey Items

English version
Rights of PLWHA

  1. A person with HIV/AIDS has the right to not reveal his/her status to other people
  2. People with HIV/AIDS should not adopt children
  3. People with HIV/AIDS have the right to confidentiality
  4. People with HIV/AIDS should be penalized if they have sexual relations without revealing their health status
  5. All people with HIV/AIDS should have access to free medications paid by the state
  6. The rights of people with HIV/AIDS should be limited so that they are not allowed to work in health scenarios
  7. People with HIV/AIDS should have health services, but in accordance to available resources, as these are very expansive
  8. People with HIV/AIDS should be obliged to reveal their health condition to their doctor


PLHWHA obliged to reveal serostatus
  1. There should be a law that forces people with HIV/AIDS to reveal their status to their sexual partners
  2. It is unforgivable that PLWHA do not reveal their status to their sexual partners
  3. The fact that a person with HIV/AIDS does not reveal his/her status to a sexual partner is equivalent to murder
  4. A person with HIV/AIDS should be obliged to reveal their status to health professionals so they can take the proper precautions
  5. The right of the family to know the HIV status of one of its members is above the right of the infected person not to reveal it


Responsibility for infection
  1. People who are infected with HIV through drug use could have avoided it if they wanted to
  2. Drug users who are infected with HIV asked for it
  3. I would not be surprised if a promiscuous person got infected with HIV
  4. Homosexuals are predominantly responsible for the HIV/AIDS epidemic
  5. Little information on HIV/AIDS makes people become infected
  6. A woman who stays with her husband even when he is unfaithful, should not be sorry if she becomes infected with HIV


Lack of productivity of PLWHA
  1. People that do not have HIV/AIDS can work for longer periods of time than those who are infected
  2. HIV/AIDS negatively impacts the productivity of a person
  3. People with HIV/AIDS should be assigned with tasks that do not require a lot of physical activity, even if they do not ask for it
  4. A person with HIV/AIDS gets tired faster than one that does not have it


Personal characteristics of PLWHA
  1. Infection with HIV is the direct result of people’s promiscuity
  2. People get infected with HIV because they have been irresponsible with their health care
  3. A person with weak character has more probability of being infected with HIV
  4. Having religious beliefs reduces the risks of getting HIV/AIDS


Fear of infection
  1. I would feel comfortable being operated on by a surgeon with HIV/AIDS
  2. I would not use the eating utensils of a person with HIV/AIDS
  3. I would be worried if I had to give blood in a laboratory where they provide services to a lot of people with HIV/AIDS
  4. I would use the services of a dentist that sees many people with HIV/AIDS
  5. It is recommended that health professionals in emergency rooms se double gloves when providing services to people with HIV/AIDS
  6. It would scare me to discover that I had sexual relationships with someone that has HIV/AIDS, even when I used protection
  7. I would prefer not to sit on a toilet that has been used by people with HIV/AIDS
  8. I would think twice before eating in a restaurant in which the person that cooks has HIV/AIDS


Emotions associated with HIV/AIDS
  1. I feel sorry for the woman that while being faithful, is infected with HIV by her partner
  2. I admire people with HIV/AIDS that take care of their health responsibly
  3. I feel sorry for people that have HIV/AIDS
  4. I do not feel sorry for drug users who get infected with IV
  5. I feel sorry for homosexuals with HIV/AIDS
  6. I feel sorry for the children infected with HIV


Closeness to death
  1. People with HIV/AIDS are closer to death
  2. People with HIV/AIDS should not adopt children because they could leave them orphaned
  3. People with HIV/AIDS who take their medications defer their death
  4. If I were diagnosed with HIV it will worry me how much time I had left to live
  5. A baby of a mother with HIV/AIDS has a shorter life expectancy that one without HIV/AIDS


Need to control PLWHA
  1. Children with HIV/AIDS in schools should be together in the same classroom
  2. There should be legislation to sterilize women with HIV/AIDS so they do not have children
  3. All people with HIV/AIDS should have an ID with them in case they are taken to an emergency room
  4. The Health Department should have an updated registry with the first and last names of all people with HIV/AIDS
  5. There should be legislation so that people with HIV/AIDS cannot get married
  6. There should be a law that forces people with HIV/AIDS to reveal their status to their sexual partners


PLWHA as vectors of infection
  1. A mother that has HIV/AIDS is a risk to her daughters/sons already born
  2. A mother that has HIV/AIDS should avoid physical contact with her daughters/sons to prevent a possible infection
  3. People with HIV/AIDS could be a threat to public health
  4. There are a lot of people with HIV/AIDS that seek to infect others
  5. People with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico could control the future of the epidemic in our country if they want to


Body signs of HIV/AIDS
  1. I can identify if a person has HIV/AIDS by looking at his/her body
  2. The bodies of the people that ask for money at street lights make me think that they have HIV/AIDS
  3. Due to the training that health professionals have it is easier for them to identify who has HIV/AIDS by looking at their bodies
  4. On occasions, I have seen extremely skinny people and thought they had HIV/AIDS
  5. It is impossible to identify if someone has HIV/AIDS by looking at their bodies


Structural concerns
  1. People get infected with HIV regardless of their formal levels
  2. People with many economical resources become infected with the same frequency as those with low resources
  3. HIV/AIDS impacts equal amounts of men and women
  4. People don’t use condoms to protect themselves even though they are easily available
  5. Drug users don’t use clean needles to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS although they are easily available
  6. In Puerto Rico, there is higher risk of infection with HIV in the metropolitan area, than in the rural area


Spanish version of the scale available in the original article

Internal Reliability

Cronbach's alpha renges from 0.62 to 0.85 for various subscales.

Validity

Construct validity, convergent and divergent validity.

Google Scholar

View article on Google Scholar

Terms Of Use

Individuals may use this information for research or educational purposes only and may not use this information for commercial purposes. When using this instrument, please cite:

N. Varas-Diaz., & Neilandsb, T. B. (2009). Development and validation of a culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS stigma scale for Puerto Rican health professionals in training. AIDS Care, 21(10), 1259-1270.

When presenting results using any survey information you obtained from the SABI, please acknowledge the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), an NIH funded program P30 AI50410.