Results of a survey using self-administered questionnaires show that widespread acceptance of various HIV conspiracy beliefs occurs across several racial and ethnic groups. The data suggest that these conspiracy beliefs contribute to negative attitudes about condom use. Conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Houston and the University of Houston, the present study appears in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Conspiracy beliefs about the origin of HIV, the cause of AIDS and the role of the US government in the spread of the HIV epidemic are widespread in the US. In a door-to-door survey of African Americans in California, one research group concluded that 27% of African Americans in California subscribed to the notion that “"HIV/AIDS is a man-made virus that the federal government made to kill and wipe out black people," and an additional 23% were unsure whether this was true or not [1].

In a random telephone survey of African Americans in the US, another group found that 20% of men and 12% of women strongly or somewhat believed that “AIDS is a form of genocide against blacks" [2].

Over 30% of men and 24% of women in this telephone survey agreed that "AIDS was produced in a government laboratory."

“These beliefs have potentially dangerous consequences for HIV prevention and AIDS treatment,” write the authors of the current study. They note that these HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs are “significantly associated” with negative condom attitudes and “inconsistent use of condoms, and may be a “facet of negative attitudes toward condom use among black men.”

A 2003 study concluded that conspiracy beliefs may be widespread and representative of significant mistrust of the government and the US health care system among both African Americans and Latinos [3]. In this study, 55% of Latinos and 50% of African Americans said they believed the US government “had an HIV vaccine but was keeping it a secret.”

The current study of HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs sought to determine the distribution of these beliefs in other racial groups and their relationship to condom use.

The researchers examined beliefs about the origin of HIV as a genocidal conspiracy in men and women of four racial/ethnic groups in a street intercept sample in Houston, Texas. Groups sampled were African American, Latino, non-Hispanic white, and Asian.

Based on these findings, the authors conclude, “Data suggest that genocidal conspiracy beliefs are relatively widespread in several racial/ethnic groups and that an understanding of the sources of these beliefs is important to determine their possible impact on HIV prevention and treatment behaviors.”

From the WHO Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, School of Public Health, University of Texas, and The HIV Prevention Research Group, College of Pharmacy, University of Houston, Houston, TX.

04/04/06

Source

MW Ross, E Essien and others. Conspiracy Beliefs About the Origin of HIV/AIDS in Four Racial/Ethnic Groups. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 41(3): 342-344. March 2006.

References

1. Klonoff EA, Landrine H. Do blacks believe that HIV/AIDS is a government conspiracy against them? Preventive Medicine 28: 451-457. 1999.

2. Bogart LM, Thorburn S. Are HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs a barrier to HIV prevention among African Americans? Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 38: 213-218. 2005.

3. Newman PA, Cunningham WE, Lee SJ, Rudy ET, Seiden D, Duan N. HIV vaccine acceptability among communities at risk: disparities in perceived barriers and concerns (Project VIBE). Abstract submitted for The XV International AIDS Conference, 2004 (Poster). Abstract TuPeD5105.