In spite of extensive campaigns to promote voluntary counselling and testing through the radio, television, newspapers and mass rallies, testing for HIV remains a challenge in Botswana. Using a representative sample of 1,294 students from secondary schools and tertiary institutions, the study investigates the effects of socio-demographic background variables, family coherence, interpersonal relations, sexual experience and knowledge about sexual health, on willingness to test for HIV infection. The results show that willingness to test for HIV infection was negatively associated with being sexually active and having a number of partners. Indicators of family, coherence, psychological bonding and personal adjustment such as common residence among parents, emotional support from the family attachment to parents, happiness with life in general and satisfaction with life as a student were associated with willingness to test. The importance of sexual activity, number of partners, happiness with life in general, level of attachment to father and physical fights with other children were identified as the social and psychological predictors of willingness to test for HIV using multiple logistic regression. The study highlights the importance of continued education about voluntary counselling and testing among sexually active young people, especially those from poorer backgrounds in rural areas.
BackgroundBotswana has the second-highest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection rate in the world, with one in three adults infected. However, there is significant geographic variation at the district level and HIV prevalence is heterogeneous with the highest prevalence recorded in Selebi-Phikwe and North East. There is a lack of age-and location-adjusted prevalence maps that could be used for targeting HIV educational programs and efficient allocation of resources to higher risk groups.MethodsWe used a nationally representative household survey to investigate and explain district level inequalities in HIV rates. A Bayesian geoadditive mixed model based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques was applied to map the geographic distribution of HIV prevalence in the 26 districts, accounting simultaneously for individual, household, and area factors using the 2008 Botswana HIV Impact Survey.ResultsOverall, HIV prevalence was 17.6%, which was higher among females (20.4%) than males (14.3%). HIV prevalence was higher in cities and towns (20.3%) than in urban villages and rural areas (16.6% and 16.9%, respectively). We also observed an inverse U-shape association between age and prevalence of HIV, which had a different pattern in males and females. HIV prevalence was lowest among those aged 24 years or less and HIV affected over a third of those aged 25–35 years, before reaching a peak among the 36–49-year age group, after which the rate of HIV infection decreased by more than half among those aged 50 years and over. In a multivariate analysis, there was a statistically significant higher likelihood of HIV among females compared with males, and in clerical workers compared with professionals. The district-specific net spatial effects of HIV indicated a significantly higher HIV rate of 66% (posterior odds ratio of 1.66) in the northeast districts (Selebi-Phikwe, Sowa, and Francistown) and a reduced rate of 27% (posterior odds ratio of 0.73) in Kgalagadi North and Kweneng West districts.ConclusionThis study showed a clear geographic distribution of the HIV epidemic, with the highest prevalence in the east-central districts. This study provides age- and location-adjusted prevalence maps that could be used for the targeting of HIV educational programs and efficient allocation of resources to higher risk groups. There is need for further research to determine the social, cultural, economic, behavioral, and other distal factors that might explain the high infection rates in some of the high-risk areas in Botswana.
The study investigated the extent to which male and female employees of a University differ in various attributes and attitudes and in the level of satisfaction with the type of work they do, and further established factors that might help explain these differences. A stratified random sample of 360 academic and administrative staff of the University of Botswana was collected. Findings indicate that differences between males and females in the level of satisfaction were due to certain negative work experiences such as gender discrimination, tribalism and racism, nepotism and favoritism, and due to certain sources of stress from the immediate supervisor, demands of work on private life and from domestic responsibilities. These negative experiences contributed to lower levels of satisfaction among women than among men. Considering all factors that might explain different job satisfaction among employees at a university, five attributes stood out as significant, namely: belonging to an older age group; understanding the competing demands of teaching and research responsibilities; taking advantage of technological advancement at work; perceiving equity in the distri-bution of the workload; feeling that there was always enough to do at work
Organizational commitment is a major determinant of organizational effectiveness and desirable employee attitudes and behaviours. Highly committed academic staff are the backbone of universities since they play an important role in the success of their institutions. This study investigated factors associated with organizational commitment among academic employees of a university in Botswana using a representative sample of 165 respondents. The study also sought to develop a parsimonious model that can predict organizational commitment among academic employees in Botswana. The results show that about 3 out of 5 academic employees sampled showed evidence of commitment to the university, regardless of their socio-demographic or socio-economic background. The study found 11 factors that were associated with commitment to the university. Most of the factors that affected organizational commitment involved decisions and actions that were directly or indirectly at the disposal and control of the management. The single most important factor that predicted commitment to the university was acceptance of the new criteria for the assessment of academic staff, followed by perception of opportunities for research.
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