Considerations of how gender-related factors influence smoking first appeared over 20 years ago in the work of critical and feminist scholars. This scholarship highlighted the need to consider the social and cultural context of women’s tobacco use and the relationships between smoking and gender inequity. Parallel research on men’s smoking and masculinities has only recently emerged with some attention being given to gender influences on men’s tobacco use. Since that time, a multidisciplinary literature addressing women and men’s tobacco use has spanned the social, psychological and medical sciences. To incorporate these gender-related factors into tobacco reduction and cessation interventions, our research team identified the need to clarify the current theoretical and methodological interpretations of gender within the context of tobacco research. To address this need a scoping review of the published literature was conducted focussing on tobacco reduction and cessation from the perspective of three aspects of gender: gender roles, gender identities, and gender relations. Findings of the review indicate that there is a need for greater clarity on how researchers define and conceptualize gender and its significance for tobacco control. Patterns and anomalies in the literature are described to guide the future development of interventions that are gender-sensitive and gender-specific. Three principles for including gender-related factors in tobacco reduction and cessation interventions were identified: a) the need to build upon solid conceptualizations of gender, b) the importance of including components that comprehensively address gender-related influences, and c) the importance of promoting gender equity and healthy gender norms, roles and relations.

The aims of this study were to examine differences in self-schemas between persons living with HIV/AIDS with and without depressive symptoms, and the degree to which these self-schemas predict depressive symptoms in this population. Self-schemas are beliefs about oneself and include self-esteem, HIV symptom management self-efficacy, and self-compassion. Beck's cognitive theory of depression guided the analysis of data from a sample of 1766 PLHIV from the USA and Puerto Rico. Sixty-five percent of the sample reported depressive symptoms. These symptoms were significantly (p ≤ 0.05), negatively correlated with age (r = −0.154), education (r = −0.106), work status (r = −0.132), income adequacy (r = −0.204, self-esteem (r = −0.617), HIV symptom self-efficacy (r = − 0.408), and self-kindness (r = − 0.284); they were significantly, positively correlated with gender (female/transgender) (r = 0.061), white or Hispanic race/ethnicity (r = 0.047) and self-judgment (r = 0.600). Fifty-one percent of the variance (F = 177.530 (df = 1524); p < 0.001) in depressive symptoms was predicted by the combination of age, education, work status, income adequacy, self-esteem, HIV symptom self-efficacy, and self-judgment. The strongest predictor of depressive symptoms was self-judgment. Results lend support to Beck's theory that those with negative self-schemas are more vulnerable to depression and suggest that clinicians should evaluate PLHIV for negative self-schemas. Tailored interventions for the treatment of depressive symptoms in PLHIV should be tested and future studies should evaluate whether alterations in negative self-schemas are the mechanism of action of these interventions and establish causality in the treatment of depressive symptoms in PLHIV.

Background. A decrease in the rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection–related wasting has been reported in the era of highly active anti

Medication adherence is the “Plus” in the global challenge to have 90% of HIV-infected individuals tested, 90% of those who are HIV positive treated, and 90% of those treated achieve an undetectable viral load. The latter indicates viral suppression, the goal for clinicians treating people living with HIV (PLWH). The comparative importance of different psychosocial scales in predicting the level of antiretroviral adherence, however, has been little studied. Using data from a cross-sectional study of medication adherence with an international convenience sample of 1811 PLWH, we categorized respondent medication adherence as None (0%), Low (1–60%), Moderate (61–94%), and High (95–100%) adherence based on self-report. The survey contained 13 psychosocial scales/indices, all of which were correlated with one another (p < 0.05 or less) and had differing degrees of association with the levels of adherence. Controlling for the influence of race, gender, education, and ability to pay for care, all scales/indices were associated with adherence, with the exception of Berger's perceived stigma scale. Using forward selection stepwise regression, we found that adherence self-efficacy, depression, stressful life events, and perceived stigma were significant predictors of medication adherence. Among the demographic variables entered into the model, nonwhite race was associated with double the odds of being in the None rather than in the High adherence category, suggesting these individuals may require additional support. In addition, asking about self-efficacy, depression, stigma, and stressful life events also will be beneficial in identifying patients requiring greater adherence support. This support is essential to medication adherence, the Plus to 90-90-90.

Human rights approaches to manage HIV and efforts to decriminalize HIV exposure/transmission globally offer hope to persons living with HIV (PLWH). However, among vulnerable populations of PLWH, substantial human rights and structural challenges (disadvantage and injustice that results from everyday practices of a well-intentioned liberal society) must be addressed. These challenges span all ecosocial context levels and in North America (Canada and the United States) can include prosecution for HIV nondisclosure and HIV exposure/transmission. Our aims were to: 1) Determine if there were associations between the social structural factor of criminalization of HIV exposure/transmission, the individual factor of perceived social capital (resources to support one’s life chances and overcome life’s challenges), and HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among PLWH and 2) describe the nature of associations between the social structural factor of criminalization of HIV exposure/transmission, the individual factor of perceived social capital, and HIV ART adherence among PLWH.