Beliefs about AIDS, health, and illness in low-income white women

A sample of 42 low-income white women were interviewed to describe their beliefs about AIDS and its treatment and to determine whether these beliefs were related to the subjects' general framework of beliefs about illness and its treatment. Content analysis was used to classify data. The causes and treatment of AIDS were categorized as professional sector, popular sector, and traditional sector health care beliefs. Professional sector beliefs included the cause and major modes of transmission and prevention identified by the biomedical system and the public health service. Popular sector misconceptions included beliefs about casual transmission and immunizations. Traditional sector beliefs concerned causes such as contamination and impurities and remedies such as herbs and diet. The respondents' explanations for the causes and treatment of AIDS in these three areas were integrated into a lay explanatory model of illness involving germs, resistance, and the immune system.