The Impacts of Some Demographic and HIV Related Risk Behavior Variables on the Status of HIV/Aids: The Case of Ossa Mobile VCT Center in Urban Addis Ababa
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Abeba university
Abstract
Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV allows individuals to
determine their HIV status and serve as a gateway for both HIV prevention
and early access to treatment, care and support. The services are available in
government, non-government and health facilities. However, very little is
known about the demographic profile, risk behavior and HIV prevalence
among VCT clients.
The study aims at describing the impacts of some pre-test counselling session
factors on the status of HIV/AIDS, which includes both demographic and risk
behavior factors. The data for this study were taken from the OSSA mobile
VCT center in urban Addis Ababa and data were analyzed using SPSS.
Among the 14810 clients a majority (67.6%) were males with overall average
age of 28.8 years. About (62%) of the total clients were never-married
followed by currently married clients (29.7%) among those whose marriage
was dissolved (divorced and widowed). The proportion of female clients is
higher than males. About (57.1%) of the clients have attended junior and
high school and female clients appeared to be less educated than males. The
reason cited for seeking VCT services by the majority (49.4%) of the clients is
due to the risky behavior they passed through followed by those who went to''
plan for future" (44.7%). The vast majority of the clients (78.2%) ever had
sexual practices in the past and female clients were less likely than their
male counterparts to report sexual practices. Nearly half of (52.2%) of the
clients reported that they did not use condoms in three months time prior to
testing and during the last sex months; females are more likely than males
for not using condoms. Prevalence of HIV infection among mobile VCT clients
was estimated to be 6.4% and varied by socio-demographic and risk behavior
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Keywords
Demographic and HIV Related Risk