Appropriateness of disclosure of HIV testing information: The perspective of PLWAs

This paper explores perceptions of the appropriateness of disclosure of HIV testing information from the perspective of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs). A systems framework, communication boundary management, is employed as a theoretical approach. Seventy-seven HIV-positive individuals responded to a questionnaire asking if they thought particular individuals (also labeled targets or recipients) should have access to results of HIV tests. Results indicated PLWAs created three grouping of recipients based on perceptions of who should have access to this information. As expected, participants reported most desire for access to results of HIV testing information to the immediate family subsystem (e.g., spouses, fathers), next most to the extended family (e.g., aunts, grandfathers), and least access to non-family (e.g., employers, teachers); actual disclosure patterns were similar. HIV-positive individuals also reported there should be less overall disclosure of HIV testing information than other sample groups. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.