Abstract
Despite its importance in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (HCT) is low in sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease continues to be a serious public health problem. This has in part been attributed to HIV/AIDS related stigma. To assess the level of HIV/AIDS related stigma and its impact on uptake of HCT in a high HIV prevalence population in Uganda. The paper used cross-sectional data on 135 men and 185 women in reproductive ages. Data were analyzed using the Pearson's chi-square statistic and the random intercept binary logistic regression model to identify significant predictors of uptake of HCT. The result shows that only 18.4% of the respondents, most of them men expressed highly stigmatizing attitudes against PLHA and 59%, men and women alike, received HCT. Uptake of HCT was higher among men (OR=1.89, p<0.01) and women (OR=4.48, p <0.001) who expressed least stigmatizing attitudes. Secondary/higher education, work in the informal sector and being ever married were significant predictors of uptake of HCT. Compared to men, women aged 25-34, 35+ and with one sexual partner were more likely to have received HCT. The low level of stigma, older age, higher level of education, being ever married and monogamous sexual relationships are significant predictors of increased uptake of HCT.
Highlights
Three decades since its discovery, HIV/AIDS continues to be a serious health problem in subSaharan Africa where 22.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS and 1.4 million people died of the disease in 20081
It is recognized that HIV/AIDS stigma can be a barrier to seeking HIV/AIDS related services including HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) 7, 8
In the first stage we described respondents by the explanatory variables which included the composite stigma variable, socio-demographic, sexual, and HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (HCT) characteristics
Summary
Three decades since its discovery, HIV/AIDS continues to be a serious health problem in subSaharan Africa where 22.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS and 1.4 million people died of the disease in 20081. Uganda with HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 6.4% (7.5% of females and 5.0% of males) is one of the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by the disease Despite this high prevalence, only 11% of men and 13% of women in Uganda have tested for HIV and received their test results[2], which has been partly attributed to HIV/AIDS stigma[3]. Despite its importance in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (HCT) is low in sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease continues to be a serious public health problem. This has in part been attributed to HIV/AIDS related stigma.
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