Cingles Info

Few Regret Disclosing HIV Status
By Michael Smith, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
May 04, 2006
Review
COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 4 - While HIV-positive men usually agonize over whether to
disclose their status, most who do don't regret it in the long run, a study has
revealed.
In a study of 76 gay men, a majority had no regrets about anyone to whom they
had told or who had learned second-hand about their status, according to
Julianne Serovich, Ph.D., of Ohio State University here.
And even among those who harbored some regrets, the rate was "remarkably low,"
Dr. Serovich and colleagues reported in the April issue of AIDS Prevention and
Education.
The findings will be useful for physicians and counselors who work with
HIV-positive patients, Dr. Serovich said. "We can tell HIV-positive men that
others in their position rarely regret the fact that other people know their
status," she said.
The study participants were recruited from those in an AIDS Clinical Trials
Unit. To be eligible, at least one member of the participant's social or sexual
network had to be aware of his HIV status, Dr. Serovich and colleagues reported.
They were interviewed about their social networks -- including friends, family
members, colleagues and acquaintances -- once a year (in 1998, 1999 and 2000)
and asked to fill out questionnaires every six months.
In the last stage of the study, participants were asked which members of their
social networks knew of their HIV status, whether they learned of it first-hand
or heard second-hand, and whether the participant regretted that the person
knew. On average, the men had a social network of 22 people, with a range from
seven to 67. At the end of the study, 80% of the network members were aware of
the participants' serostatus, and 70% had been told directly by the participant,
Dr. Serovich and colleagues found.
Overall, the study found, 63% of the men had no regrets that any of the members
of their social network knew of their HIV status. Also, 75% of the participants
had fewer than 7% "regret experiences" - they were unhappy that some (but not
all) members of their networks knew.
In other words, Dr. Serovich and colleagues said, in a typical network of 22
people, 18 would know the participant's HIV status and the participant would be
unhappy about no more than one.
The highest incidence of regret, the researchers found, was 37.5% -- a
participant had a social network of 17 people, of whom 16 knew his status. But
he had only told 10 and the other six learned second-hand, to his chagrin.
Overall, there were 1,397 social-network members who were aware of the
participants' HIV status, but the participants regretted only 58 of those cases,
or 4.2%, the researchers found.
The most angst came from having family members, work-mates, and casual sex
partners know, the researchers found. Specifically:
a.. Compared with having a friend know, participants were more than four times
as likely to regret having disclosed their status to a family member. The odds
ratio was 4.04, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 1.77 to 9.2.
b.. Compared to friends, participants were nearly than four times as likely to
regret having disclosed their status to a work-mate. The odds ratio was 3.73,
with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 1.17 to 11.92.
c.. Again compared to friends, participants were more than three times as
likely to regret having disclosed their status to a casual sex partner. The odds
ratio was 3.16, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 1.32 to 7.56.
"I was very surprised at how little regret we found, because you see the angst
in HIV-positive men who deliberate very carefully on whether or not to tell
people," Dr. Serovich said.
She and colleagues noted that the study involved mainly white men from a small
mid-Western urban center, and might not generalize to all men with HIV.
The study is one of the first of its kind, Dr. Serovich said. The only similar
study, published in 2003, focused on how women felt after disclosing their HIV
status to their young children.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/HIVAIDS/dh/3233