"My House Is the Hospital": Housing and Health and Wellbeing among Persons Living with HIV/AIDS in Northern Malawi

Type Journal Article - Journal of health care for the poor and underserved
Title "My House Is the Hospital": Housing and Health and Wellbeing among Persons Living with HIV/AIDS in Northern Malawi
Author(s)
Volume 26
Issue 4
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 1246-1264
URL https://muse.jhu.edu/article/597760/summary
Abstract
This paper reports findings of a qualitative study and draws on the political ecology of health framework to examine the links between housing and health among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) in Northern Malawi in a wider context in which the epidemic has overburdened the country’s hospitals, thereby transferring the responsibility for care from government to families. The findings suggest that poor housing conditions, rooted in colonial and postcolonial policy failure, may undermine the amount, as well as the quality, of palliative care available to PLWAs. It was also found that the high cost of renting, discrimination, and poor landlord-tenant relationships imposed significant financial and emotional burden on PLWAs, thereby undermining their ability to meet dietary needs, stay healthy, and adhere to treatment. Furthermore, customary norms around property inheritance hampered women’s housing security and their ability to cope with the disease. The paper concludes by making relevant policy recommendations.

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