Investigating Russian Awareness of HIV Using a Perception Model: An Analysis of Russia's Socio-Cultural Infrastructure

Abstract

This thesis was conducted to determine the awareness of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Russia. A perception model by David L. Rousseau and Rocio Garcia-Retamero was used as a theoretical basis for this analysis. The perception model was adapted to analyze Russian-HIV research done between 1988 and 2013, and then compare the results to another analysis of research done from 2014 to the present. The results indicate that Russia's awareness to the virus declined between 1988 and 2013 and remains in this general position due to stigmatization that has been documented between 2014 and the present. Russia faces an HIV epidemic and unless a more in-depth analysis of how Russians perceive the HIV situation is understood, Russia will be hard-pressed to eliminate the disease from within its borders.