Factors Contributing to Voluntary Counseling and Testing Uptake among Youth in Colleges of Harar, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is an integral component of HIV prevention and care strategies worldwide. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used to collect data. The collected data were entered in Epi Info version3.5.3. Data analyses were done using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the data. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to measure the association between the dependent variable and independent variables calculating odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval (CI). Statistical significance was set at α. ≤ 0.05. Multivariable analyses were applied to identify the relative effect of explanatory variables on the dependent variable. Result: The prevalence of HIV testing was 52.8%. The finding also showed that students who are sexually active (AOR=1.261, CI=1.134, 1.822), youth having a boy/girl friend (AOR=1.233, CI=1.211, 2.923), youth having sex with their partner (AOR=3.823, CI=1.891, 7.730), who are willing to pay for VCT(AOR=2.233, CI=1.633, 3.052), those who discuss HIV/AIDS with their family (AOR=1.504, CI=1.029, 2.199), colleague utilized VCT (AOR=1.775, CI= 1.269, 2.482), were more likely to be tested. Conclusions and Recommendations: The results indicated that there is still less number of students utilized VCT service: therefore there is a need of further information, education and communication program with regard to increase VCT service uptake, expanding youth targeted VCT service.