RESEARCH ARTICLE


HIV Care Providers’ Role Legitimacy as Supporters of Their Patients’ Alcohol Reduction



Shiela M. Strauss*, 1, Corrine Munoz-Plaza2, Nelson J. Tiburcio2, Stephen A. Maisto2, Joseph Conigliaro4, Marya Gwadz2, Joseph Lunievicz2, Robert Norman2
1 College of Nursing, New York University, New York, New York, USA
2 National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., New York, New York, USA
3 Department of Psychology, Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
4 Department of Psychology, Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
5 College of Dentistry, New York University, New York, New York, USA, USA


© 2009 Strauss et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the College of Nursing, New York University, 246 Greene Street, 616E, New York, New York 10003, USA.


Abstract

Although HIV care providers are strategically situated to support their patients’ alcohol reduction efforts, many do not do so, sometimes failing to view this support as consistent with their roles. Using data collected from 112 HIV providers in 7 hospital-based HIV Care Centers in the NYC metropolitan area, this paper examines the correlates of providers’ role legitimacy as patients’ alcohol reduction supporters. Results indicate that providers (1) responsible for a very large number of patients and (2) with limited confidence in their own ability to give this assistance, but high confidence in their program’s ability to do so, were less likely to have a high level of role legitimacy as patients’ alcohol reduction supporters. Findings suggest the types of providers to target for alcohol reduction support training.