Background: Nigeria currently ranks 4th on the list of countries with the highest absolute number of people living with HIV (1.8 million) and is classified by UNAIDS as having a Generalized HIV epidemic (prevalence of 1.3%). Given that knowledge of HIV/AIDS is a key predictor of transmission, there is a need to understand the current state of HIV knowledge among Nigerian women.
Method: A cross-sectional study using data from the individual (women’s) recode dataset from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative household cluster survey of 41821 Nigerian women aged 15-49. Data analysis was done using SAS version 9.4. Following descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests followed by logistic regression analysis were used to explore the relationship between explanatory variables and the outcome variable(comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS - a binary variable, coded as yes if a participant knows both HIV prevention methods, is aware that any healthy-looking person can have the virus, and rejects the two most common local misconceptions, otherwise no.) The results were reported using odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval and a p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Result: Approximately 94% of participants had ever heard of HIV/AIDS, but less than half (45.4%) of them had comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS. 81.2% of the participants were aware that any healthy-looking person can have the virus, 70.7% correctly identified the two best preventive practices against HIV (having one faithful uninfected partner and using condoms every time one has sex), and 60.4% rejected the two commonest local misconceptions about HIV transmission (the beliefs that people can get HIV from mosquito bites and through witchcraft). All predictive variables were significantly associated with having comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS in the unadjusted logistic regression analysis. After adjustment, older participants(Age groups > 15-19 had higher odds of having comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS than younger ones(15-19) with aOR 1.34, 1.48, 1.53, 1.51, 1.49, and 1.36; p-values all <0.0001. Urban residents had more odds than rural dwellers (aOR 1.36, CI 1.29–1.44), and participants with secondary education or higher, had more odds than those with no education(aOR of 1.50, CI 1.40-1.61). Participants in other religious groups had more odds than Catholics(aOR 1.42, CI 1.02–1.96), so are wealthier compared to poorer ones(middle and high wealth indices with aOR 1.13 and 1.50; CI 1.06–1.21 and 1.40-1.61). Access to mass media at least once a week was associated with higher odds than no access (aOR 1.34; 95% CI 1.28-1.41). Having more than one sexual partner (2, 3, 4, and 5+ partners with aOR 0.73, 0.62, 0.68, and 0.75; 95% CI 0.69-0.78, 0.57-0.67, 0.61-0.77 and 0.67-0.83) is associated with fewer odds than having one partner and so is belonging to other Christian groups compared to Catholics (aOR 0.77, CI 0.71-0.83).
Conclusion: These findings underscore the need for a more pragmatic HIV/AIDS-related knowledge intervention targeted at all age groups while paying close attention to adolescents, rural area residents, and less educated women. Further studies are vital to monitor the progress of HIV interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2113 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Nwaneki, Chisom M., Quinn, Megan, White, Melissa |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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