AEGiS-14IAC: African American and Latino views of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at twenty years: results of a U.S. survey.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

African American and Latino views of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at twenty years: results of a U.S. survey.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. G12538)

Kates JK, Aragon RA
Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington, DC, United States

ISSUES: Public opinion plays an important role in helping to inform how public and private stakeholders respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Survey research also provides insight into how the changing nature of HIV/AIDS affects perceptions and attitudes over time. Understanding the views of populations most affected - in the United States, African Americans and Latinos - is particularly critical at the start of the third decade of AIDS. Most survey research, however, does not include large enough sample sizes of African Americans and Latinos to allow for detailed analyses within and across populations.

DESCRIPTION: This policy research is based on the Kaiser Family Foundation's nationally representative telephone survey of 2683 adults, including 431 African Americans and 549 Latinos, in the continental U.S. Fieldwork was conducted between August 14 and October 26, 2000. Interviews were completed in both English and Spanish.

ISSUES: African Americans and Latinos are more likely than their white counterparts to express urgency and concern about the epidemic and its role in their own lives, the nation, and the world. Knowledge and information needs also vary by race/ethnicity, with African Americans and Latinos more likely to say they need more information about a range of HIV-related topics compared to whites. African Americans and Latinos also expect both public and private stakeholders - including government, schools, religious leaders, and corporate America - to do more to fight HIV/AIDS.

RECOMMENDATIONS: This national survey demonstrates that attitudes toward and knowledge of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. vary by race/ethnicity, perhaps reflecting the epidemic's disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. Such variations may inform U.S. public policy efforts and those of other stakeholders and help gauge attitudes over time as the epidemic continues to exact a great toll on minority populations.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, HIV Infections, Data Collection, Disease Outbreaks, European Continental Ancestry Group, HIV Seropositivity, United States, Ethnic Groups, Public Opinion, Continental Population Groups, Americas, Adult

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