The Free Provision of ARV Therapy: Is it a Golden Opportunity on a Silver Platter for Organisations?

Abstract

This article seeks to establish the extent to which organisations in Botswana are trying to promote the utilisation of government provided ARV service within their workplace, by referring their employees to it. To determine the degree of association between the dependent and predictor variables, Chi square and logit regressions are used. The Botswana AIDS Impact Survey Two (BAIS II) data for workplaces has been used. The degree of referral is quite low amongst both the pubic and private/parastatal sector organisations. Overall there were 23.7 percent of organisations with referral mechanisms for antiretroviral therapy within the workplace, of which the majority of them had educational programmes of some kind. There is a significant positive relationship between the availability of ARV referral mechanism as the dependent variable and the following predictor variables, namely policy availability and a combination of programmes (ProgIndex). Large organisations have a negatively significant relationship with the dependent variable. There is a need for programmes such as peer educators and HIV/AIDS coordinators and HIV policies to be put in place within workplaces in an effort geared towards minimising losses within organisations.