Hepatitis C and the Social Hierarchy: How Stigma Is Built in Rural Communities

Abstract

Although Hepatitis C has profound impacts on individuals living in communities, most research has been conducted in a hospital or laboratory setting. Additionally, there is a lack of research exploring the social effects of Hepatitis C in rural communities. In this qualitative study, we focus on perceptions on Hepatitis C within a rural community, describe how the local residents perceive social hierarchy within their community, and explore the process of stigma building. Informed by a grounded theory approach, we employed a snowball sampling strategy in a southern rural area to conduct in-depth, open-ended interviews. In our findings we describe how local restaurants were often utilized as places to exchange personal opinions on various community issues among the upper hierarchical members, consider the ways social hierarchy influences people’s perceptions, and explore community members’ response to the problem of ignored viral infections within the community. We found the community leaders are earning the trust by living in the community for an extended period of time; therefore, they tend to be elderly yet remain active as members of various committees. Additionally, we argue that the common view of “family-like support” in rural communities is largely a myth; it is a romanticized view of the rural living held and perpetuated by the upper-class people in the community. Therefore, instead of depending on idealized or imaginary social support, rural communities need to consider organizing a system of formal support.

The social perspective of viral hepatitis: Scope review

“…Primeiro autor e ano Título (Henderson & Kawakami, 2018) Hepatitis C and the Social Hierarchy: How Stigma Is Built in Rural Communities (Skeer et al, 2018) 'Hep C's like the common cold': Understanding barriers along the HCV care continuum among young people who inject drugs (Behzadifar et al, 2019) The challenges of hepatitis C management in Iran: A qualitative study with patients (Cloud et al, 2019) Rural risk environments for hepatitis c among young adults in appalachian Kentucky (Snyder et al, No que se refere à área de atuação dos autores, destacou-se a saúde pública (19 artigos), a medicina (05 artigos), a sociologia da saúde (04 artigos) e a epidemiologia (03 artigos). As áreas de segurança sanitária, saúde e economia, saúde comunitária, enfermagem e biociências apresentaram um artigo cada.…”

“…Duas pesquisas revelaram que jovens adultos tinham maior conhecimento sobre os riscos de infecção, maior propensão à solicitação de teste diagnóstico e maior confiança em lidar com as opiniões alheias sobre o comportamento sexual (Banwell et al, 2005;Zheng et al, 2017). Contudo, outros dois artigos identificaram que os jovens adultos expressaram maior preconceito sobre o processo de transmissão (Henderson & Kawakami, 2018;Van Der Veen et al, 2009). Os idosos reportaram menor preocupação com a sua condição de saúde (Zheng et al, 2017) e as crianças estavam mais susceptíveis à contaminação no espaço doméstico e escolar (Vieira et al, 2010).…”

“…A renda dos participantes foi associada à percepção sobre os problemas de saúde, ao entendimento das informações e à adesão aos procedimentos terapêuticos (Farias et al, 2019;Le Gautier et al, 2020;Rajamoorthy et al, 2019;Skeer et al, 2018;Tosun et al, 2018;Williams et al, 2019;Zabihi et al, 2017;Zheng et al, 2017). Os participantes com menor nível socioeconômico, que recebiam benefício governamental ou estavam desempregados apresentaram maiores taxas de infecção (Behzadifar et al, 2019;Henderson & Kawakami, 2018;Meffre et al, 2010;Valdespino et al, 2007).…”