CORVALLIS, Ore. A new study suggests that a number of African Americans are distrustful of the government's role in the origin and treatment of HIV/AIDS and that African American men who have such beliefs also have more negative attitudes toward condoms and use them less consistently.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health. It was published this week in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

It is the believed to be the first study to examine a wide range of HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with condom use.

"These 'conspiracy theories' have been out there for a while and are part of a larger distrust of government, as well as of medical and public health institutions, by many African Americans," said Sheryl Thorburn, an associate professor of public health at Oregon State University and co-author of the study. "But this is one of the first studies to show that these beliefs about HIV/AIDS may be affecting behavior."

The researchers conducted a national telephone survey with 500 randomly selected African Americans, ages 15-44. Included in the survey were questions about HIV/AIDS beliefs, attitudes toward condoms, and condom use.

More than half (53.4 percent) of those surveyed said they believe that there is a cure for AIDS, but that it is being withheld from the poor. Only 37 percent felt that the government was telling the truth about AIDS. Among the other findings:

43.6 percent of African Americans surveyed felt that people who take new medicines for HIV are human guinea pigs for the government;

26.6 percent said AIDS was produced in a government laboratory;

48.2 percent believed that HIV is a man-made virus;

15.2 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide against blacks. "We need more open discussion about these beliefs, because they are very real," Thorburn said.

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Contact: Sheryl Thorburn
sheryl.thorburn@oregonstate.edu
541-737-9493
Oregon State University
25-Jan-2005


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