HIV-related stigma among Spanish-speaking Latinos in an emerging immigrant city following the Solo Se Vive Una Vez social marketing campaign

Abstract

HIV-related stigma exacerbates Latino immigrants’ risk of HIV infection and delayed care. Following the implementation of the social marketing campaign Sólo Se Vive Una Vez (You Only Live Once) to increase HIV testing that addressed stigmatizing beliefs, we conducted a survey among Latinos in Baltimore, Maryland (N = 357). The aims of this paper are to 1) characterize the sociodemographic characteristics, HIV-related stigma beliefs, and testing behaviors of the survey respondents by campaign exposure, and 2) model the effects of Vive exposure on stigma beliefs and testing behaviors. Comparing post-campaign survey respondents exposed and unexposed to the campaign to survey findings previously obtained and reported before the campaign implementation, respondents to the post-Vive survey continued to hold high levels of stigma beliefs, and compared to the pre-Vive survey sample, were more likely to hold four or more stigmatizing beliefs (from the six survey items). Among the post-Vive survey respondents, those for whom religion was important or very important had an increased odds of 1.6 of holding four or more stigmatizing beliefs. Survey respondents who were exposed to the campaign, however, had an increased odds of 2.25 of reporting ever having been tested for HIV. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the changing social context in addressing stigma within emerging immigrant communities and highlight the critical role of religious leaders in efforts to address HIV-related stigma.