Abstract
BackgroundCollege students in China are emerging as one of the most vulnerable groups to contract HIV, because they are in a sexually active age group and also because of their open attitude toward sex and high risk sexual behaviors. This study aimed to explore the prevalence of willingness among college students to utilize HIV testing and counseling (HTC) service and the factors that may affect willingness, including predisposing, enabling and need factors, based on the Andersen’s behavioral model.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from October 6, 2016 to December 31, 2016 in Hubei University of Science and Technology in China. After signing informed consent, college students completed a self-designed online questionnaire distributed via https://www.wjx.cn/ voluntarily, anonymously and confidentially. Pearson’s chi-square test and Logistic regression models were chosen to analyze the factors associated with willingness to utilize HTC service.ResultsOut of 3314 college students in the sample, 2583 (77.9%) expressed their willingness to utilize HTC service. After adjustment, those with low levels of discrimination towards people living with HIV (PLHIV) (OR = 1.41, 95%CI:1.17–1.68), being more knowledgeable about free HTC service centers (OR = 1.44, 95%CI:1.17–1.77), having recognized the necessity to provide HTC service in the local university (OR = 2.20, 95%CI:1.73–2.80), and having a higher HIV risk perception (OR = 1.64, 95%CI:1.37–1.95) were more willing to utilize HTC service, compared with their respective counterparts.ConclusionsIn order to improve their willingness to utilize HTC service and finally to achieve the goal of zero-AIDS, a comprehensive intervention measure should be taken to publicize HTC service, eliminate stigma and discrimination against PLHIV, recruit and train peer volunteers to serve in the local university, and increase self-perceived risk of HIV infection.
Highlights
College students in China are emerging as one of the most vulnerable groups to contract Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), because they are in a sexually active age group and because of their open attitude toward sex and high risk sexual behaviors
According to the latest figures available from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (UNAIDS), there were globally 36.7 million [30.8 million- 42.9 million] people living with HIV (PLHIV) at the end of 2016 and the prevalence has remained unchanged since 2001 and reached its highest level of 0.8% in 2015
One objective of this study is to identify factors associated with willingness to utilize HIV testing and counseling (HTC) service among college students in China, defined as a positive response [11, 14] to the following question: “If you were offered free HTC service, would you wish to accept?” Students were categorized into two groups: those who had expressed willingness and those who had expressed unwillingness (0 = unwillingness, 1 = willingness)
Summary
College students in China are emerging as one of the most vulnerable groups to contract HIV, because they are in a sexually active age group and because of their open attitude toward sex and high risk sexual behaviors. It is especially noted that college students in China are emerging as one of the most vulnerable groups to get HIV, because they are in a sexually active age group and because of their. Fu et al BMC Public Health (2018) 18:1050 open attitude toward sex (e.g., homosexuality and premarital sex) and high risk sexual behaviors (e.g., failing to use condoms correctly and consistently). UNAIDS is currently leading and inspiring the world into achieving “90–90– 90” targets (90% of all PLHIV knowing their HIV status, 90% of people diagnosed with HIV infection having access to treatment and 90% of people on treatment having suppressed viral loads) by 2020 and “getting into zero” (zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths)
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