CAN A CO-DESIGNED DIGITAL TOOL HELP ASSESS AND REDUCE STIGMA FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV?

February 10, 2025 -

People living with HIV (PLWH) often face poor health outcomes due to stigma, including factors like mental health, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Key challenges include limited tools to assess stigma, mismatched stigma-reduction programs, and a focus on individual behavior rather than the broader clinic environment. In collaboration with government and non-government stakeholders, and PLWH, we are working to tackle these issues in our upcoming initiative, ‘‘Developing and Testing a Digital Health Tool for INterseCtional stigma assessment and reduction at multiple Levels and mUltiple DimEnsions (INCLUDE) To Improve HIV Care in ART Centers in Nepal”, supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH). This three-year study will be pre-pilot tested at one ART center in Kathmandu, and pilot-tested at four different ART centers representing different geographic regions of Nepal.