Abstract
Despite implementation of HIV prevention programmes for truck drivers in India, unsafe sex behavior among truck drivers has been documented. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge about HIV Transmission and modes of prevention, pattern of condom use with high risk partners and explore the practice of unsafe sex and its risk factors among truck drivers. This exploratory cross-sectional study design was conducted on a recruited convenient sample of 100 truck drivers above 18 years from March to May 2015. Binary logistic regression was used to compute unadjusted odds ratio [95% Confidence Interval] for establishing association of risk factors with unsafe sex. Overall, only 7% had complete knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. 54% of truck drivers have sex with a high risk partner (commercial sexual worker or men having sex with men) and thirty-eight percent reported unsafe sexual practices due to inconsistent condom use with them. The various risk factors found significantly associated with unsafe sex were mean age of first intercourse (OR= 0.92, 95% CI: 0.75 - 0.97), access to pornography (OR = 4.4, 95% CI: 1.8 - 10.7) and conuming psychoactive substance before sex (OR = 4.06, 95% CI: 1.09 - 15.02). Socio-demographic, occupational factors, pornography access and consuming psychoactive substances seems to influence the sexual behaviour of truckers.
Highlights
With 36.9 million people living with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus globally and absence of a definitive cure, the disease continues to remain a daunting public health problem of modern times
Socio-demographic, occupational factors, pornography access and consuming psychoactive substances seems to influence the sexual behaviour of truckers
Almost all of them had heard about HIV/AIDS and 40% of them were exposed to some HIV education programme. 76% had misconception about its transmission
Summary
With 36.9 million people living with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus globally and absence of a definitive cure, the disease continues to remain a daunting public health problem of modern times. Various factors were found to facilitate transmission of HIV ranging from inconsistent condom use especially with commercial sexual worker and drug use.[9,10] In 2017, the National AIDS Control Organization reported the prevalence of HIV among long distance truck drivers as 0.86%.11. Inconsistent condom use is reported among truck drivers with high-risk partners in India.[12,13,14] To investigate the possible gaps in the knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention, patterns of condom use and explore the practice of unsafe sex and its risk factors, we embarked on this study among truck drivers. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge about HIV Transmission and modes of prevention, pattern of condom use with high risk partners and explore the practice of unsafe sex and its risk factors among truck drivers. Afri Health Sci. 2021;21(2). 547-556. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ ahs.v21i2.9
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