Factors Influencing the Uptake of HIV Testing Services among Youths living at Lake Katwe Landing Site, Kasese District

Abstract

HIV remains one of the most serious global health threats. Globally, 38 million people are living with HIV, 68% of these in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective was to assess the factors influencing the uptake of HIV testing services among youths living at the Lake Katwe landing site, Kasese district. A health facility-based descriptive cross-sectional study design among 50 youths living at Lake Katwe landing site, Kasese district. Participants were chosen using a snowball sampling method. The data was collected by using a pretested interviewer semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed at two levels (univariate and bivariate) using SPSS version 22.0. Out of 50 participants, it was found that; 40 (80.0%) of the participants had ever tested for HIV, 10(20.0%) had never tested for HIV 34(68.0%) had less than twice tests, 6(12.0%) tested more than twice in a year. Several factors were significantly associated with the uptake of HIV testing services and these include; the participant’s age (Pvalue=0.001*), marital status (P-value=0.003*), participant’s occupation (0.009*), Participant’s preferred site for HIV testing (P-value=0.013*), Participants’ trust towards health workers (P-value=0.000*), Types of services wanted by the participants and Waiting hours when getting the HIV testing services (P-value=0.043*) respectively and Quality of the services provided (P-value=0.033*).Conclusively, the uptake of HIV testing services was low at 20.0% among youth and this low uptake was among youths who were singles and unemployed, however, participants who preferred private clinics and self-testing, lack of trust towards health workers and the quality of the services provided by health facilities were significantly associated with the uptake of HIV testing services. Keywords: Influencing Factors, HIV Testing Services, Youths, Health Care Services