Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
AIDS and Behavior
Published in: AIDS and Behavior 3/2012

01-04-2012 | Original Paper

AIDS Conspiracy Beliefs and Unsafe Sex in Cape Town

Authors: Eduard Grebe, Nicoli Nattrass

Published in: AIDS and Behavior | Issue 3/2012

Login to get access

Abstract

This paper uses multivariate logistic regressions to explore: (1) potential socio-economic, cultural, psychological and political determinants of AIDS conspiracy beliefs among young adults in Cape Town; and (2) whether these beliefs matter for unsafe sex. Membership of a religious organisation reduced the odds of believing AIDS origin conspiracy theories by more than a third, whereas serious psychological distress more than doubled it and belief in witchcraft tripled the odds among Africans. Political factors mattered, but in ways that differed by gender. Tertiary education and relatively high household income reduced the odds of believing AIDS conspiracies for African women (but not men) and trust in President Mbeki’s health minister (relative to her successor) increased the odds sevenfold for African men (but not women). Never having heard of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the pro-science activist group that opposed Mbeki on AIDS, tripled the odds of believing AIDS conspiracies for African women (but not men). Controlling for demographic, attitudinal and relationship variables, the odds of using a condom were halved amongst female African AIDS conspiracy believers, whereas for African men, never having heard of TAC and holding AIDS denialist beliefs were the key determinants of unsafe sex.
Literature
1.
Bogart LM, Thorburn Bird S. Exploring the relationship of conspiracy beliefs about HIV/AIDS to sexual behaviors and attitudes among African-American adults. J Natl Med Assoc. 2003;95(11):1057–65.PubMed
2.
Niehaus I, Jonsson G. Dr. Wouter Basson, Americans, and wild beasts: men’s conspiracy theories of HIV/AIDS in the South African Lowveld. Med Anthropol. 2005;24(2):179–208.PubMedCrossRef
3.
Nattrass N. Mortal combat: AIDS denialism and the struggle for antiretrovirals in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press; 2007.
4.
Geffen N. Debunking delusions: the inside story of the treatment action campaign. Johannesburg: Jacana; 2010.
5.
Grebe E. Coalition-building through local and transnational networks in the Treatment Action Campaign’s AIDS activism. J South Afr Stud, forthcoming.
6.
Bogart LM, Thorburn S. Are HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs a barrier to HIV prevention among African Americans? J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2005;38(2):213–8.PubMedCrossRef
7.
Ross MW, Essien EJ, Torres I. Conspiracy beliefs about the origin of HIV/AIDS in four racial/ethnic groups. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2006;41(3):342–4.PubMedCrossRef
8.
Bogart LM, Galvan FH, Wagner GJ, Klein DJ. Longitudinal association of HIV conspiracy beliefs with sexual risk among black males living with HIV. AIDS Behav. 2010 [Epub ahead of print].
9.
Bohnert AS, Latkin CA. HIV testing and conspiracy beliefs regarding the origins of HIV among African Americans. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2009;23(9):759–63.PubMedCrossRef
10.
Bogart LM, Wagner G, Galvan FH, Banks D. Conspiracy beliefs about HIV are related to antiretroviral treatment nonadherence among African American men with HIV. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2010;53(5):648–55.PubMed
11.
Bogart LM, Kalichman SC, Simbayi LC. Endorsement of a genocidal HIV conspiracy as a barrier to HIV testing in South Africa. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008;49(1):115–6.PubMedCrossRef
12.
Tun W, Kellerman S, Maime S et al. Conspiracy beliefs about HIV, attitudes towards condoms and treatment and HIV-related preventive behaviors among men who have sex with men in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa. XVIII international AIDS conference. Vienna 2010 [abstract TUPE0656].
13.
Parsons S, Simmons W, Shinhoster F, Kilburn J. A test of the grapevine: an empirical examination of conspiracy theories among African Americans. Sociol Spect. 1999;19(2):201–22.CrossRef
14.
Klonoff EA, Landrine H. Do blacks believe that HIV/AIDS is a government conspiracy against them? Prev Med. 1999;28(5):451–7.PubMedCrossRef
15.
Gwata F. Traditional male circumcision: what is its socio-cultural significance among young Xhosa men? CSSR working paper 264; November 2009.
16.
Hofstadter R. The paranoid style in American politics and other essays. New York: Alfred Knopf; 1965.
17.
Showalter E. Hystories: hysterical epidemics and modern culture. New York: Columbia University Press; 1997.
18.
Irwin HJ. Belief in the paranormal: a review of the empirical literature. J Am Soc Psych Res. 1993;87(1):1–39.
19.
Jameson FR. Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press; 1991.
20.
Mason F. A poor person’s cognitive mapping. In: Knight P, editor. Conspiracy nation: the politics of paranoia in post-war America. New York: New York University Press; 2002.
21.
Knight P. Introduction: a nation of conspiracy theorists. In: Knight P, editor. Conspiracy nation: the politics of paranoia in post-war America. New York: New York University Press; 2002.
22.
Willman S. The ideologies of conspiracy and contingency in postmodern culture. In: Knight P, editor. Conspiracy nation: the politics of paranoia in post-war America. New York: New York University Press; 2002.
23.
Hellinger D. Conspiracy, and hegemony in American politics. In: West H, Sanders T, editors. Transparency and conspiracy: ethnographies of suspicion in the new world order. Durham: Duke University Press; 2003.
24.
Melley T. Agency panic and the culture of conspiracy. In: Knight P, editor. Conspiracy nation: the politics of paranoia in post-war America. New York: New York University Press; 2002.
25.
Mirowsky J, Ross CE. Paranoia and the structure of powerlessness. Am Sociol Rev. 1983;48(2):228–39.PubMedCrossRef
26.
27.
Abalakina-Paap M, Stephan WG, Craig T, Gregory WL. Beliefs in conspiracies. Polit Psychol. 1999;20(3):637–47.CrossRef
28.
Crocker J, Luhtanen R, Broadnax S, Blaine BE. Belief in U. S. government conspiracies against blacks among black and white college students: powerlessness or system blame? Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 1999;25(8):941–53.CrossRef
29.
Marwick M. Witchcraft as a social strain-gauge. Aust J Sci. 1964;262–8.
30.
Comaroff J. Introduction. In: Comaroff J, editor. Modernity and its malcontents: ritual and power in postcolonial Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1993.
31.
Comaroff J, Comaroff J. Alien-nation: zombies, immigrants, and millennial capitalism. South Atl Quart. 2002;101(4):779–805.CrossRef
32.
Gescheire P. The modernity of witchcraft: politics and the occult in post-colonial Africa. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia; 1997.
33.
Sanders T, West H. Power revealed and concealed in the new world order. In: Sanders T, West H, editors. Transparency and conspiracy: ethnographies of suspicion in the new world order. Durham: Duke University Press; 2003.
34.
Ashforth A. An epidemic of witchcraft? The implications of AIDS for the post-apartheid state. Afr Stud. 2002;61(2):121–43.CrossRef
35.
Stadler J Rumor, Gossip, Blame. Implications for HIV/AIDS prevention it the South African Lowveld. AIDS Educ Prev. 2003;15(4):357–68.PubMedCrossRef
36.
Posel D, Kahn K, Walker L. Living with death in a time of AIDS: a rural South African case study. Scand J Public Health. 2007;69(suppl):138–46.
37.
Kalichman S. Denying AIDS: conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and human tragedy. New York: Springer Press; 2009.
38.
Strine TW, Kobau R, Chapman DP, Thurman DJ, Price P, Balluz LS. Psychological distress, comorbidities, and health behaviors among US adults with seizures: results from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey. Epilepsia. 2005;46(7):1133–9.PubMedCrossRef
39.
Tobacyk J, Milford G. Belief in paranormal phenomena: assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1983;44(5):1029–37.CrossRef
40.
Nattrass N. Gender and access to antiretrovirals in South Africa. Femin Econ. 2008;14(4):19–36.CrossRef
41.
Higgins JA, Hoffman S, Dworkin SL. Rethinking gender, heterosexual men, and women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Am J Public Health. 2010;100(3):435–45.PubMedCrossRef
Metadata
Title
AIDS Conspiracy Beliefs and Unsafe Sex in Cape Town
Authors
Eduard Grebe
Nicoli Nattrass
Publication date
01-04-2012
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
AIDS and Behavior / Issue 3/2012
Print ISSN: 1090-7165
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3254
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-011-9958-2

Other articles of this Issue 3/2012

AIDS and Behavior 3/2012 Go to the issue

Original Paper

HIV/AIDS-Related Stigmatizing and Discriminatory Attitudes and Recent HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Beijing

Original Paper

Changes in Gay Men’s Participation in Gay Community Life: Implications for HIV Surveillance and Research

Original Paper

Blocking the Benefit of Group-Based HIV-Prevention Efforts during Adolescence: The Problem of HIV-Related Stigma

Original Paper

Mastery Moderates the Negative Effect of Stigma on Depressive Symptoms in People Living with HIV

Original Paper

Patterns of Substance Use Among a Large Urban Cohort of HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men in Primary Care

Brief Report

Preventive Misconception as a Motivation for Participation and Adherence in Microbicide Trials: Evidence from Female Participants and Male Partners in Malawi and Zimbabwe
Live Webinar | 27-06-2024 | 18:00 (CEST)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Reserve your place

Live: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)

WHO estimates that half of all patients worldwide are non-adherent to their prescribed medication. The consequences of poor adherence can be catastrophic, on both the individual and population level.

Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.

Prof. Kevin Dolgin
Prof. Florian Limbourg
Prof. Anoop Chauhan
Developed by: Springer Medicine
Obesity Clinical Trial Summary

At a glance: The STEP trials

Read more

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.

Developed by: Springer Medicine
Image Credits