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Socioeconomic Factors Affecting HIV Prevalence in Women of Reproductive Age in Zambia

HIV/AIDS is considered the deadliest epidemic in the 21st century and has proved to be of major public health importance. Per the 2000 Zambia census, the people affected by HIV/AIDS constituted 15% of the total population, amounting to one million, of which 60% were women. Previous studies have identified sexual contact, significant exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, mother to child transmission during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding as leading ways of transmission. The purpose of this study was to determine the socioeconomic factors that affect the prevalence of HIV in Zambian women. This research will help to provide more insight into this topic and aid in identifying areas that could be targeted by future intervention strategies to reduce the HIV burden. We used a cross-sectional study based on data from the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS). Secondary data analysis was conducted based on data for women aged 15-50 years (n=14922). Factors predicting HIV prevalence such as the age of household members, current marital status, place of residence, and the highest educational level attained were included in the analysis. Outcome variables included the result of determine HIV1/2 RDT and unigold HIV1/2 RDT. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed on all variables. Bivariate analysis was performed to determine the relationship between each predictor variable and HIV prevalence in women, using a chi-square test. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed using HIV test results and all predictor variables, odds ratio, confidence intervals, and P-value were reported. The prevalence of HIV in women aged 15-50 in Zambia was 9.9% in the study sample. Overall, our analysis showed that being aged 35-50 (4.7%), residing in an urban setting (6.53%), being married (6.1%), and having attained at least secondary education (4.68%) were associated with a higher HIV prevalence. All relationships were significant in the chi-square analysis at the p

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2200
Date25 April 2023
CreatorsOmenuko, Nnamdi, Tafesse, Yordanos
PublisherDigital Commons @ East Tennessee State University
Source SetsEast Tennessee State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAppalachian Student Research Forum

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