Abstract
BackgroundExisting evidence showed that Human Immunodeficiency Virus counselling and testing uptake among Ethiopian youths is low, and factors contributing to it are not well studied. Therefore, this study aims to assess the status of uptake and identify its determinants using the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey data.MethodData of 10,903 Ethiopian youths were extracted from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. The association between the response variable and the predictors was modeled by multilevel binary logistic regression, whereas adjusted odds ratio and confidence intervals were used to measure associations and their statistical significance. The variation in the uptake of counselling and testing of HIV across regions of Ethiopia was quantified by intra-class correlation.ResultThe current study revealed that, overall, 34.9% (95% CI: 33.5, 36.2%) Ethiopian youths were ever tested for human immunodeficiency virus. Results show that about 9% of the variation in the probability of being tested for the disease was due to the regional variations. Moreover, having moderate and comprehensive HIV knowledge, being rich, having risky sexual behaviour, having a better educational level, having professional work, being married, owning of mobile, and having access to media were positively associated with human immunodeficiency virus voluntary counselling and testing uptake. On the other hand, being male, following protestant religion, following Muslim religion, and following other religions than orthodox religion were negatively associated with the uptake of human immunodeficiency virus counselling and testing.ConclusionVoluntary human immunodeficiency virus counselling and testing uptake among Ethiopian youths is very low and varies across the regions which might hamper the ambitious plan of Ethiopia to end the disease as a public health threat by 2030. Emphasis should be given to promoting the youths’ HIV-related knowledge through community-based education, encouraging and empowering the youths to participate in professional works by giving due focus to poor youths, and promoting mass media utilization to better achieve the plan.
Highlights
Existing evidence showed that Human Immunodeficiency Virus counselling and testing uptake among Ethiopian youths is low, and factors contributing to it are not well studied
According to the Ethiopian Federal HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) and Federal Ministry of Health guideline, youths are among the top priority population segments for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) which is given free of charge since they are vulnerable to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) because of the strong influence of peer pressure and the development of their sexual and social identities which often lead to experimentation [2]
Among the youths ever been tested for HIV, the youths living in Dire-Dawa special district were the leading where 55.9% of them were tested followed by Gambella and Addis Ababa youths where 54.7 and 51.6% were respectively tested while the Somali region’s youths registered the lowest testing figure where only 13.2% were tested for the disease (Fig. 1)
Summary
Existing evidence showed that Human Immunodeficiency Virus counselling and testing uptake among Ethiopian youths is low, and factors contributing to it are not well studied. In 2014, the United Nations Program on Acquired Immunodeficiency syndromes (UNAIDS) being with other stakeholders launched the three 90s targets of diagnosing 90 % of all HIV-positive persons, providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) for 90 % of those diagnosed, and achieving viral suppression for 90 % of those treated by the year 2020 [4]. According to the reports from the 2019 UNAIDS and World Health Organization (WHO), globally, 37.9 million people were living with the disease at the end of 2018, whereas, 1.7 million people and 770,000 people were respectively newly infected and died from the disease-related causes [3, 5]. 23,000 people were newly infected at the end of 2018 leaving Ethiopia far off achieving the 2020 target [7]
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