The phenomenology of body image in men living with HIV
Résumé
Research into how people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) experience and make sense of feared or actual body changes, such as lipodystrophy, is limited. The present study conducted in-depth interviews with gay men living with HIV. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) yielded themes across five domains. The ambiguity of early-stage lipodystrophy was a cause of distress. Inherent in the experience was a drive to detect changes early, a process fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. This contributed to negative feelings about the body and possible misperception of change. In later stages, lipodystrophy was felt to be highly distinctive. The men struggled to live with a disproportionate shape that transgressed a body ideal. Feelings of loss of control were evident in both the increased ineffectiveness of strategies to maintain a desirable appearance and in the tendency for these changes, particularly facial lipoatrophy, to act as a visible marker of status. Conflicting feelings emerged in ideas of thinness and of health, with loss of fat seen as desirable in certain contexts. The study builds on previous research suggesting that the high value of appearance, particularly within gay communities, may lead to extreme compensatory behaviours. HIV places increased risk on a group highly vulnerable to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. The study concludes with a cognitive-behavioural model of body image for PLWHA, and suggestions for intervention. Body image concerns should be acknowledged when addressing HIV-related health. Further research is needed to validate the model and investigate whether the findings are generalisable to other contexts. However, body image concerns should be acknowledged when addressing HIV-related health.
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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