I wrote this dissertation for the School of Advanced Studies at University of Phoenix, Arizona, in 2011. To do the research for the dissertation, I spent quite a bit of time at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention archives as a graduate student. I also interviewed medical doctors and others who knew about the subject matter. Since I wrote this dissertation, there has been more research published that I will continue to research and add to my archival collection. The issues of this dissertation were discussed as the emergent theoretical model and its components, which included implications of research, practice, stigma, burden, advocacy, and awareness. Leadership, education, and community resources were the dominant themes that emerged in the study. The study findings imply an increased need for leaders to present public awareness about the affects HIV/AIDS has on the African American community. Future research should consider the explicit nature of the answers, which benefited the study. The information would be helpful while improving the quality of life available for African American women and would enable leaders to interact with a leadership perspective (USAID, 2009)

A study of the Lack of HIV/AIDS Awareness among African American Women: A Leadership Perspective

AWARENESS THAT ALL CULTURES SHOULD KNOW ABOUTBy Betty L. Ragsdale-Hearns

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 Betty L. Ragsdale-Hearns
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-4852-5

Contents

LIST OF TABLES.............................................................xixLIST OF FIGURES............................................................xxiCHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................1CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................18CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD.................................................52CHAPTER 4: RESULTS.........................................................68CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................80REFERENCES.................................................................99APPENDIX A: DEMOGRAPHICS...................................................117APPENDIX B: INFORMED CONSENT...............................................119APPENDIX C: PERMISSION TO USE PREMISES.....................................123APPENDIX D: PERSONAL COMMUNICATION/TELEPHONE INTERVIEW.....................127APPENDIX E: LEADERSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE.......................................129APPENDIX F: SURVEY INSTRUMENT..............................................131

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, the global pandemic of HIV/AIDS has disrupted the lives of millions of people in the United States (Stampley, 2005). HIV disproportionately affects African Americans, as with many other diseases of poverty and limited resources. The spreading of HIV has been influenced by poverty, lack of access to health care, distrust of health systems, inadequate resources, and a myriad of other social factors and inequities (Global Campaign for Microbicides, 2006). Although African Americans only account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, African Americans account for half of all new AIDS diagnoses in the U.S. (Global-Campaign, 2006).

The solution for this type of epidemic is not short-term. Strategists should look 10-30 years ahead for ways to prevent the disease. Prevention may bridge the gap between those who are HIV negative, HIV positive, and/or infected with AIDS (Global AIDS epidemic, 2005). Almost 40 percent of newly diagnosed HIV positive women in the U.S. are African American (Yellin, 2006), and 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women (CDC, 2005). The study may inspire a closer review of lack of awareness and their socio-economic status of African American women affected by HIV/AIDS.

Increasing interests have emerged from leader's perspective on HIV/AIDS awareness. This introduction addresses two different audiences. It is both an introduction for persons not familiar with AIDS and the HIV updates, and a resource for activists; it includes information not generally available in one compilation (AIDS. gov, 2010). This chapter provides a theoretical foundation for the remaining chapters. The study examines the purpose of the role of leadership and problems for research on HIV/AIDS awareness and includes a research method, design, and questionnaire to seek awareness results. The results offer a leadership perspective of in-depth awareness and insight about how HIV/AIDS affects African American women.

Background of the Problem

Singer and Baer (2007) report that acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has emerged as one of the most devastating diseases in human history. "The virus that causes AIDS, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), has spread rapidly throughout the world's human population" (Singer & Baer, 2007, p. 201). According to Fauci (2008), Auto-Immunodeficiency Syndrome is the full-blown case of an infection with the Human Immuno Virus I or II, a retrovirus.

According to Smith and Daniel (2006) a retrovirus that causes AIDS by infecting helper T-cells of the immune system was the most common serotype, HIV-1. This retrovirus was distributed worldwide while HIV-2 was primarily confined to West Africa. The disease was termed HIV when the person becomes just infected (Fauci, 2008). The virus has the power of replication, so that the virus remains unharmed by treatment. The HIV virus must infect other cells in order to replicate, and other opportunistic viruses enter the human body, leaving behind the advantage of immunity. The HIV virus will progress, weaken the body cells, and reach its full-fledged state of AIDS.

According to health Scout Network (2009) immediately following infection with HIV, most individuals develop a brief, nonspecific viral illness consisting of low-grade fever, rash, muscle aches, headache, and/or fatigue. Like any other viral illness, these symptoms resolve over a period of five to ten days. Then for a period of several years (sometimes as long as several decades), people infected with HIV were asymptomatic (no symptoms). Then, the virus gradually destroys their immune system. When this destruction has progressed to a critical point, symptoms of AIDS appear. These symptoms are as follows: extreme fatigue; rapid weight loss from an unknown cause (more than 10 lbs. in two months for no reason); the appearance of swollen or tender glands in the neck, armpits or groin, for no apparent reason, lasting for more than four weeks; unexplained shortness of breath, frequently accompanied by a dry cough, not due to allergies or smoking; persistent diarrhea; intermittent high fever or soaking night sweats of unknown origin; a marked change in an illness pattern, either in frequency, severity, or length of sickness; the appearance of one or more purple spots on the surface of the skin, inside the mouth, anus or nasal passages; whitish coating on the tongue, throat or vagina; and forgetfulness, confusion and other signs of mental deterioration. "It can take as short as a year to as long as 10 to 15 years to go from being infected with HIV to `full-blown' AIDS" (health Scout Network, 2009, p. 2).

HIV/AIDS signifies the presence of opportunistic infections, which could affect any part of the body and present as pneumonia (Fauci, 2008). The first case was identified in the United States (U.S.) in homosexuals who presented with pneumonia in 1981. Since 1981, more than 1.6 million people have been infected with HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2004).

Problem Statement

In the Dallas and Fort Worth areas of Texas, we are seeing an increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS amongst African American women. The increase in the infection population brings additional awareness of this disease to the community but infection rates continue to rise and families continue to suffer losses, when African American women die from this disease. Many issues contribute to the problem of increasing death rates and escalating occurrences of HIV/AIDS among African American women (Census, 2007). The increase in death and infection rates presented an urgent need to develop awareness related to the prevention of HIV/AIDS (Wilson, 2010).

The epidemiology research stated by the CDC (2009) and reported by the AIDS education Global Information System, supports HIV/ AIDS prevention findings about the two cities, Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Each city has received more than $1 million in city funding over the past three years to support HIV/AIDS prevention (CDC, 2009). The HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis (PRS) project, initiated by the Prevention Research branch Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) at CDC in 1996, systematically reviews and summarizes HIV behavioral...