Assessment of VCT Utilization for HIV/AIDS among Government and Non-government Employees in Butajira, SNNPR, Ethiopia
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Date
2007-06
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: It is only recently that voluntary counseling and testing services have been
considered important as an entry point for prevention and care interventions for
HIV/AIDS. Access to voluntary counseling and testing services, however, remains
limited and the demand for the service is often low.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess magnitude of utilization of voluntary
counseling and testing for HIV/AIDS and to identify factors and barriers that affect VCT
utilization among government and non-government employees in Butajira town, SNNPR.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted among 347 government
and 349 non-government employee in Butajira town, Gurage Zone, southern Ethiopia.
This study used two stage sampling, the first stage was cluster sampling to select
randomly seven sectors from government organizations, and another seven blocks from
non-governmental organizations, taking sectors and blocks as a sampling unit for
government and non-government organizations, respectively. The study used a
standardized and pretested questionnaire for the quantitative study and four focus group
discussions for the qualitative study. Data was analyzed by binary analysis using the
logistic regression in SPSS.
Results: A total of 736 study participants were eligible in this study, 696 were willing to
participate in the study, among these 347 (49.9%) were government employees and 349
(50.1%) were non-government employees. The mean age of the respondents was 31.2
years. The magnitude of VCT utilization in the study participants was 37.9% with a 95%
CI (34.3% and 41.5%). Voluntary counseling test utilization was higher to statistically
significant level among female participants, higher educational status, married
individuals and individuals having a monthly income of 1000 birr or more than their
referents.
Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that VCT utilization is low in Butajira town
although it is higher than the reported prevalence for urban areas n the country.
The result of this study indicates that VCT users are mainly government employees and
females.
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Keywords
VCT, HIV/AIDS