Knowledge, Opinions and attitudes towards HIV and AIDS among Youth in Botswana

Abstract

Knowledge, opinions and attitudes of youth towards HIV/AIDS are very important for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. Botswana is one of the countries in sub Saharan Africa which has long struggled with HIV/ AIDS epidemic and several program efforts aimed at enhancing knowledge about HIV/AIDS have been developed and implemented. The current paper utilizes data derived from Botswana Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey conducted in Botswana in 2009 which is a nationally representative survey of school going leaner’s aged 10 to 19 years. The main objective of the survey was to assess and monitor the prevalence of key youth health risk Behaviors and related risk factors in a random sample of learners aged 10 to 19 years, in 15 Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) districts of Botswana. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze data in SPSS version 21 program and results were presented as odds ratios and percentages. Bivariate analyses results indicate that 10.5% of students reported that HIV transmission cannot be prevented, 13.6% thought it can be prevented by not having sex if you suspect the person has HIV/AIDS, 5.8% thought that by having only a few partners at a time would prevent transmission of HIV, 11.3% were of the view that serial monogamy would help prevent transmission, and use of condom when one feels it is important to do so score highest with 14.0%. Multivariate analyses show that young children aged 10-13(OR=0.689) who are at primary school level (OR=0.235) are less likely to have correct knowledge about the relationship between HIV and AIDS and also about HIV transmission and prevention than their older counterparts. Females were more likely to show negative attitudes towards PLWA than males (OR=1.3).