Development of a 12-item short version of the HIV stigma scale

Table 4 Descriptive statistics for items and subscales in the short-form version of the HIV Stigma Scale^a

	Mean item score^b (SD)	Corrected item-total correlation	Mean subscale score^c (SD)	Reliability, α	Floor/ceiling effect (%)
Personalised stigma			6.09 (2.75)	0.88	28/6
28. Some people avoid touching me once they know I have HIV	2.06 (1.00)	0.70
29. People I care about stopped calling after learning I have HIV	1.97 (1.00)	0.84
36. I have lost friends by telling them I have HIV	2.06 (1.06)	0.78
Disclosure concerns			9.08 (2.57)	0.84	6/22
4. Telling someone I have HIV is risky	2.97 (0.98)	0.68
6. I work hard to keep my HIV a secret	2.97 (1.02)	0.74
17. I am very careful who I tell that I have HIV	3.25 (0.96)	0.68
Concerns about public attitudes			7.60 (2.50)	0.81	9/9
9. People with HIV are treated like outcasts	2.43 (0.97)	0.67
10. Most people believe a person who has HIV is dirty	2.54 (0.99)	0.71
20. Most people are uncomfortable around someone with HIV	2.64 (0.97)	0.62
Negative self-image			6.40 (2.75)	0.80	24/5
2. I feel guilty because I have HIV	2.21 (1.09)	0.62
3. People’s attitudes about HIV make me feel worse about myself	2.17 (1.07)	0.70
7. I feel I’m not as good a person as others because I have HIV	2.01 (1.09)	0.62

^aParticipants with complete answers, n = 880
^bPossible score for each item 1–4; higher scores reflect a higher level of perceived HIV-related stigma
^cPossible score 3–12 on each scale; higher scores reflect a higher level of perceived HIV-related stigma
^SDStandard deviation

ISSN: 1477-7525