Abstract:
Introduction
: HIV-related stigma impacts the quality of life and care management of HIV-infected and HIV-affected individuals,
but how we measure stigma and its impact on children and adolescents has less often been described.
Methods
: We conducted a systematic review of studies that measured HIV-related stigma with a quantitative tool in paediatric
HIV-infected and HIV-affected populations.
Results and discussion
: Varying measures have been used to assess stigma in paediatric populations, with most studies utilizing
the full or variant form of the HIV Stigma Scale that has been validated in adult populations and utilized with paediatric
populations in Africa, Asia and the United States. Other common measures included the Perceived Public Stigma Against
Children Affected by HIV, primarily utilized and validated in China. Few studies implored item validation techniques with the
population of interest, although scales were used in a different cultural context from the origin of the scale.
Conclusions
: Many stigma measures have been used to assess HIV stigma in paediatric populations, globally, but few have
implored methods for cultural adaptation and content validity
