Volume 24, Issue 6: December, 1997

Abstract

HIV TESTING AMONG HAITIAN WOMEN: LESSONS IN THE RECOGNITION OF RISK

Judith L. Wingerd, Ph.D.
J. Bryan Page, Ph.D.

Address all correspondence to: Judith L. Wingerd, 1513 N. 17th Ave., Hollywood, FL 33020; e-mail: JLWingerd@aol.com.

Haitian women in Miami, Florida responded to recruitment for testing of HIV antibody serostatus in ways that demonstrated the value of ethnographic methods for studying reactions to this kind of test, especially pre- and post-test counselling sessions. A total of 155 women between fourteen and 61 years old, recruited in Miami in 1992 and 1993 participated. Response to testing identified three primary obstacles to the women's understanding of content presented in pre- and post-test counseling sessions: 1) their confusion about the meaning of "positive" versus "negative," 2) our difficulty in communicating the concept of antibody, and 3) vagueness of the concept of "window" period between exposure and presentation of antibody. Re-testing of a subset of Haitian participants helped to define sexual risk among these women both in terms of having partners who had other partners and perception of supernatural risk.