Chinese HIV-Positive Patients and Their Healthcare Providers

Abstract

In this qualitative study, 29 HIV-positive, Chinese patients reported highly favorable impressions of their healthcare providers, who were seen as providing important medical-related, financial, and emotional support. Generally, the patient-provider relationship positively impacted the participants and their ability to maintain their health and was especially critical when patients were isolated from familial sources of support due to intense AIDS stigma. Often family members were informed of an HIV diagnosis before the patient, revealing tensions between Confucian principles of collectivism and familial authority and increasingly prevalent Western ideals of individual autonomy and the privileged status of personal health information.

Facilitators of and barriers to HIV self-management: Perspectives of HIV-positive women in China

“…With good support from family, the participants were able to redefine the meaning of life and get the support they needed to live. Many of them felt they needed to “pay back” to their family for this support, not just by surviving but by living as well as they could (Chen et al, 2007). …”

Nurse-delivered counselling intervention for parental HIV disclosure

“…In China, a setting with acute HIV stigma [21], the limited relevant research suggests that disclosing HIV/AIDS serostatus to family members is contentious and a cause of considerable psychological distress [22]. Regarding disclosure to children in particular, qualitative findings show that parents report feeling overwhelmed and unequipped to systematically consider relevant factors to make an informed decision.…”

Unmet Health Service Needs of Newly Diagnosed HIV-Positive Men Who have Sex with Men in China: Results from An Ethnography

“…Service providers for PLWH are mainly clinicians who have not received training in providing psycho-social support [11] and are commonly overloaded in their working environment [12]. It has been contended that the high cost of care may further limit expansion of more integrated services [13].…”