Browsing by Author "Abiy Abebe"

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    Perception of High School Students Towards Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing, Using Health Belief Model in Butajira, SNNPR.
    (Addis Abeba Universty, 2006-08) Abiy Abebe; Getnet Mitkie
    A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in January 2006, among Butajira senior secondary school students. The objective of the study was to assess the perception and attitude of the students towards voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services based on Health Belief Model. A multi stage sampling method was used to fill 658 self-administered questionnaires of which 638 were returned complete making the respondent rate of 96.9%. Among the respondents, 415(65%) were males and 223(35%) were females. The mean age of the students was 16.25± 2.09. Of both sex mix,129(20.22%) of the respondents had sexual experience i.e. 16.92% of the males and 3.3% of the females. The majority, 96.7% of them had heard about VCT services from different sources but only 118(18.5%) of the students had undergone VCT. Eighty two percent of the students were willing to under goVCT. A theoretical construct with the intention to willingness to undergo VCT was analyzed. Thus bi-variate regression analysis showed that willingness to VCT was significantly associated with perceived susceptibility AOR=0.37(0.28,0.89), perceived barrier AOR= 0.45 (0.23, 0.89), perceived benefit AOR=1.79(1.44, 2.49)Even if majority of the students had high level of knowledge, still they were engaged in risky sexual behavior. About half of the students had low perception towards acquiring HIV. Therefore, Information, education and communication programs should be established and emphasis should be put on reproductive health in order to encourage the students to avoid unsafe sex. HIV preventive messages like VCT should emphasis on personal susceptibility to HIV/ AIDS. Self-efficacy of the students to use VCT should be strengthened and quantitative study on perceived barriers and benefit of VCT should be conducted.