Chinese HIV-positive patients and their healthcare providers: contrasting Confucian versus Western notions of secrecy and support.

In this qualitative study, 29 HIV-positive, Chinese patients reported highly favorable impressions of their healthcare providers, who were seen as providing important medical-related, financial, and emotional support. Generally, the patient-provider relationship positively impacted the participants and their ability to maintain their health and was especially critical when patients were isolated from familial sources of support due to intense AIDS stigma. Often family members were informed of an HIV diagnosis before the patient, revealing tensions between Confucian principles of collectivism and familial authority and increasingly prevalent Western ideals of individual autonomy and the privileged status of personal health information.