Abstract
Background: Reproductive health remains a major health concern in developing countries such as Papua New Guinea (PNG). The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in PNG is the highest in the Southern Pacific region, with women having a higher risk of contracting the infection. Hence, there have been several policies aimed at mitigating the spread of the disease. One of these policies include the use of mass media as a health promotion tool to educate the population on the risk of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the association of mass media to HIV testing among women. Methods: Data were obtained from the PNG Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2019. A total of 15,005 reproductive-age women was included in this analysis. Results: The results showed that women with low (aOR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.39, 1.90) and high (aOR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.36, 1.72) media exposure were more likely to undertake HIV testing compared to those with no media exposure. Compared to no education, women with incomplete primary (aOR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.40), complete primary (aOR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.30, 1.87), incomplete secondary (aOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.85, 2.58), complete secondary (aOR= 2.33, 95% CI: 1.77, 3.09) and higher (aOR = 3.38, 95% CI: 2.57, 4.46) education were more likely to undertake HIV testing. Compared to women with the poorest wealth index, women with richer indexes were more likely to undertake HIV testing. Women living in rural areas were less likely to undertake HIV testing (aOR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.63, 0.82). However, marital status, knowledge of transmission and religion were not associated with HIV testing. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study provides strong evidence that mass media exposure increases the likelihood of HIV testing in women of reproductive age in PNG. Mass media campaigns would serve as a cost-effective health promotion tool against the spread of disease.
Highlights
The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndromes (HIV/AIDS) in the Southern Pacific region is reported to be 0.2% [1]
More than two-thirds (73.3%) of the participants lived in rural areas, and (72.4%) had good knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission
We found a higher level of education was significantly associated with increased odds of HIV testing, and the odds were highest for women with more than secondary education
Summary
The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndromes (HIV/AIDS) in the Southern Pacific region is reported to be 0.2% [1]. The estimated prevalence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is 0.9, the highest in the region [2]. PNG is a culturally diverse and geographically varied Pacific Island nation, and HIV prevalence varies geographically within the country [3]. Women are at a higher risk of transmission than men, i.e., 1.1% vs 0.7% [2]. The role of women in controlling the spread of HIV is of particular interest due to vertical (mother to child) transmission [5,6] and the positive correlation between genderbased violence and increased risk of HIV transmission, considering the high prevalence of violence against women and children in PNG [4,7–10]. It was estimated that 71.0% of Papua New Guineans living with HIV are aware of their status, the frequency of pregnant women undertaking HIV testing in 2019 was low, at 19.5%, despite a vertical transmission rate of 22.6% [2]. Only 39.6% of TB cases were tested for HIV in 2015, even though TB is a common HIV comorbidity [13]
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