Julianne Serovitch, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Ohio State University examined both hypotheses in a study of 13 HIV-positive gay men. (AIDS Edu Prev 2001;13:355-64).
The participants were asked to rate the importance of 18 possible consequences of disclosure of their status to a specific person.Of the participants, 55 percent had disclosed their status to their families and 63 percent had told friends.Serovitch
found that "disease progression may not play a role in the decision to disclose an HIV diagnosis."According to Serovitch
, "Early in the HIV/AIDS epidemic the progression of disease was unambiguous, but advances in HIV therapies now keep the virus under control in many cases.Disclosure could be a pivotal factor in reducing the behaviors that continue the spread of HIV," as well as seeking emotional support and feeling that others had a right to know.The main reasons for non-disclosure were to avoid fights, blame, and losing relationships."If the positive consequences of disclosure outweighed the negative repercussions the chances were good that a man told his
friends and family," Serovitch
said."But the same doesn't seem to hold for sexual partners, and we're not sure why," she