Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
Centre of Excellence of Research in AIDS, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 24;19(15):8997. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19158997.
The HIV epidemic is fueled by poverty; yet, methods to measure poverty remain scarce among populations at risk for HIV infection and disease progression to AIDS in Malaysia. Between August and November 2020, using data from a cross-sectional study of people who use drugs, (PWUD), transgender people, sex workers and men who have sex with men, this study examined the reliability and validity of a material security scale as a measurement of poverty. Additionally, we assessed factors associated with material security scores. We performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for 268 study participants included in the analysis. A revised nine-item three-factor structure of the material security scale demonstrated an excellent fit in CFA. The revised material security score displayed good reliability, with Cronbach's alpha of 0.843, 0.826 and 0.818 for housing, economic resources and basic needs factors, respectively. In a subsequent analysis, PWUD and transgender people were less likely to present good material security scores during the pandemic, compared to their counterparts. The revised nine-item scale is a useful tool to assess poverty among key populations at-risk for HIV/AIDS with the potential to be extrapolated in similar income settings.
艾滋病病毒的流行是由贫困推动的；然而，在马来西亚感染艾滋病毒和艾滋病进展的高危人群中，衡量贫困的方法仍然很少。2020 年 8 月至 11 月，本研究使用吸毒者、跨性别者、性工作者和男男性行为者的横断面研究数据，检验了物质保障量表作为衡量贫困的一种方法的可靠性和有效性。此外，我们还评估了与物质保障评分相关的因素。我们对纳入分析的 268 名研究参与者进行了验证性因素分析（CFA）。物质保障量表的修订后的九项三因素结构在 CFA 中表现出良好的拟合度。修订后的物质保障评分显示出良好的可靠性，住房、经济资源和基本需求因素的克朗巴赫 α 系数分别为 0.843、0.826 和 0.818。在随后的分析中，与同龄人相比，在大流行期间，吸毒者和跨性别者不太可能表现出良好的物质保障评分。修订后的九项量表是一种有用的工具，可用于评估艾滋病病毒/艾滋病高危重点人群中的贫困问题，并且有可能在类似的收入环境中推广。
