Assessment of Knowledge on HIV Screening Among Students in Girls' Secondary School Abayi, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Voluntary counseling and testing is a vital element of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention and care strategies worldwide. It is a test carried out to determine the HIV status of a person. HIV screening enables early detection and initiation of treatment which improves the quality, and life expectancy of a HIV positive individual. Adolescents are among the vulnerable groups with an increased risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS and need to embrace HIV/AIDS testing and counseling. Objective: To assess the knowledge on HIV screening amongst adolescents in Girls’ Secondary School Abayi with a view to enlighten them on the importance of HIV screening. Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study and semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Students within the ages of 10-19 years were selected by systematic sampling methods and 424 students were presented using tables. Association was tested at p-value of 0.05%. Results: There was a non-response rate of 20 (4.7%). Two-hundred and thirty-four (57.9%) of the students had good knowledge of HIV/AIDS screening and 282 (69.8%) knew that HIV screening is a test to determine individual HIV status. Uptake of HIV screening was 57(14.1%) and 178 (44.1%) students believed that the reason for poor HIV screening was lack of proper awareness. Benefits of HIV screening included helping to start early treatment as accepted by 191 (47.3%) students and 332 (82.2%) respondents agreed that the test provided opportunity for proper advice on knowledge of HIV. Association of class of the respondents and knowledge HCT was found to be statistically significant with p-values of 0.006. Conclusion: There was a good knowledge of HIV screening among the students. The major reason for poor screening uptake were lack of awareness on HIV screening and inadequate provision of screening opportunities. HIV screening awareness was recommended.