Psychometric Evaluation of a Cross-Culturally Adapted Felt Stigma Questionnaire Among People Living with HIV in Kenya

Abstract

Psychometric properties of an 18-item HIV felt stigma questionnaire were evaluated utilizing data collected from a diverse ethnic and socioeconomic group of 370 people living with HIV/AIDS and receiving HIV/AIDS-related health services at an HIV clinic in Kenya. Factor analyses revealed a four factor solution (public attitudes, ostracize, discrimination, personal life disrupted) based on the Scree plot with explained variance of 44% that had Eigen values greater than 1.00. The retained felt stigma items revealed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.828, while the four factors had coefficient alphas ranging from 0.675 to 0.799. The adapted retained questionnaire was deemed a practical guide for measuring felt stigma in a Kenyan cultural context to necessitate provision of the most effective HIV-related mental health services to individuals living with HIV in Kenya.