Conspiracy Beliefs about Antiretroviral Medications for HIV/AIDS among African Americans Living with HIV1.

The purposes of the present analysis are twofold: 1) to assess the extent to which African Americans that are living with HIV subscribe to conspiracy beliefs about antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS; and 2) ascertain the differences, if any, between men, women and educational attainment regarding these beliefs. Findings indicate that over one-third (36.6%) somewhat or strongly agreed that "people who take the new medicines for HIV/AIDS are human guinea pigs for the government," while 28.8% somewhat or strongly endorsed the statement that "the medicine that doctors prescribe to treat HIV is poison." One quarter of all the respondents endorsed the belief that "the medicine used to treat HIV causes people to get AIDS" (25.3%). Patients who were high school or beyond high school graduates were less likely than their peers with less education to endorse belief about HIV treatments. The calculated effect sizes confirm education's effect is meaningful in this sample. There are no gender differences in belief about HIV treatments.