Ghanaian Pharmacists’ Perception of People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHIV)

Abstract

To determine Ghanaian pharmacists' perception of persons living with HIV (PLWHIV), pharmacists and other health care personnel in Ghana completed self-administered questionnaires in 3 separate studies from November 2003 to January 2005. Two of the studies (studies 2 and 3) incorporated 4 simple questions that are generally administered to determine, hypothetically, the degree of discrimination against PLWHIV. Responses to these questions were also analyzed in the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). A nondiscriminatory response to all the indicators reflected an accepting attitude, and a discriminatory response, in at least one indicator, reflected a negative attitude. In study 1, 35% of pharmacists indicated an accepting attitude toward PLWHIV. In study 2, only 17% of the pharmacists sampled indicated an accepting attitude toward PLWHIV. In study 3, none of the 10 pharmacists sampled indicated an accepting attitude toward PLWHIV. However, 19% of the totality of health workers did so. Compared to Ghanaians of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, pharmacists tended to report a more perceived discriminatory attitude toward PLWHIV.

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

“…Onethird (31 %) of pharmacists in this study possessed accepting attitudes in all 14 discriminatory attitude indicators, a contrast with the Ghanaian study reporting only 17% acceptance in 4 indicators [11].…”

“…This result confirms the assertions made in the Ghanaian study where it noted that judgmental attitudes could cause discrimination of PLWHA [11]. When pharmacists perceive their HIV patients negatively, patient-provider trust may be difficult to build during counseling and patient attrition during service delivery is almost inevitable.…”

“…Pharmacists are beginning to have more contact with HIV/AIDS patients and they are usually the first port of call of illness reporting in most cases [11]. Thus their attitude towards and perceptions of PLWHA is very important for effective care and be given serious thought if we are to kick discrimination and stigmatization of PLWHA out of our health care system.…”

“…Ahmed et al explored levels of pharmacy students' attitude and risk perception of HIV/AIDS between Malay and Chinese students, and found discriminating attitudes and perceptions to be common [10]. In Ghana, a study conducted to assess the perceptions of Ghanaian pharmacists towards PLWHA found only 17% of pharmacists having acceptable attitudes towards them [11]. Letamo, in a 2005 Nigerian survey, assessed health care professionals' discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHA but did not include pharmacists [5].…”

Confronting inequities: A scoping review of the literature on pharmacist practice and health-related disparities

“…[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Additionally, researchers have 212 explored how stigmas about particular groups can be associated with systematic deficits in 213…”