Influences of stigma and HIV transmission knowledge on member support for faith-placed HIV initiatives in Chinese immigrant Buddhist and protestant religious institutions in New York City.

Ethnic religious institutions in the United States are uniquely positioned to influence HIV programming within Asian immigrant communities at large. This article examines how knowledge of HIV transmission and stigma potentially influenced attendees' support for their institutions' involvement in HIV programs. Quantitative questionnaires were individually administered to 400 Chinese attendees of Protestant churches and 402 attendees of Buddhist temples in New York City. Mediational analyses indicated that HIV stigma significantly mediated the direct effects of HIV transmission knowledge on attendees' support of their institution's involvement in HIV education (bias corrected and accelerated [BCa] 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.004 to 0.051), HIV care (BCa 95% CI, 0.019 to 0.078), and stigma reduction initiatives (BCa 95% CI, 0.013 to 0.070), while controlling for religious affiliation, age, gender, and education. To mobilize Chinese churches and temples to engage in HIV programming, it remains important to support educational programs on HIV transmission that specifically help to mitigate stigma toward persons living with HIV.