Determinants and Distribution of Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Knowledge in Ghana

Abstract

Globally, nearly 37 million people are living with HIV with about 70 percent of these living in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Stigma and discrimination remain one of the major barriers to preventing new infections in the country. However, misconceptions about HIV/AIDS have been indicated as one of the key drivers of the disease. Efforts to prevent new infections have not been entirely successful. Therefore, this study aims to examine the trends and distribution in comprehensive knowledge of HIV and AIDS and determine the factors associated with comprehensive awareness of HIV and AIDS among adult women and men. The study relies on data from three rounds of Ghana Demographic & Health Surveys conducted in 2003, 2008 and 2014 to show trends. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. The thematic mapping of HI/AIDS comprehensive knowledge was conducted using ArcGIS version 10.4 using GPS coordinates in the 2014 GDHS which contained aggregated individual characteristics and HIV knowledge scores.While comprehensive HIV and AIDS knowledge is above 50% among adult population in Ghana, the results show a significant decrease in comprehensive knowledge from 72% in 2008 to 59% in 2013. The strongest predictors for having comprehensive knowledge were found to be education; gender, marital status, locality, occupation and wealth status. The paper demonstrates that preventive activities leading to improvement in the comprehensive knowledge of HIV and AIDS in Ghana is needed. Sound knowledge about HIV and AIDS is critical for the adoption of behaviours that reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Education on HIV prevention must be expanded to improve the comprehensive knowledge of the disease.

Determinants of comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS among reproductive age (15–49 years) women in Ethiopia: further analysis of 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey

“…Similarly, women being in the highest wealth index had a good comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS as compared to the poorest women. This result is in agreement with the study done in Nigeria and Republic of Congo [20], in Ghana [19], in three east African countries [17]. This is due to the reason that having good socioeconomic status improves media exposure or educational achievement which increases the likelihood of knowledge about HIV/AIDS [28].…”

“…Some studies also showed that lower educational level [18], poor wealth index [17,19], and rural residence [20] and do not use contraceptives [21] were factors that decline comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS among women of reproductive age. Having accurate HIV/AIDS knowledge about transmission and prevention is very important for avoiding HIV infection and ending the stigma and discrimination of infected and affected persons.…”

Determinants of Overall HIV/AIDS Knowledge Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women Aged 15–24 Years in Malawi

“…This is a worrisome nding as it suggests that some AGYW in Malawi are still lacking basic knowledge of HIV transmission as well as prevention methods. This result is consistent with the ndings of a study done in Ghana [15]. The present study has revealed that age, education, wealth index, frequency of listening to radio and work status were signi cantly associated with overall HIV/AIDS knowledge.…”

“…AGYW who had attained primary education and those who had secondary or higher education were more likely to have high overall knowledge of HIV/AIDS compared to those who had no education. This nding is consistent with the studies conducted in Kenya and Ghana [11,15]. There are various potential explanations for the positive correlation between education and overall HIV/AIDS knowledge.…”

“…Thus, participants who had a score of 3-5 were regarded as having high HIV/AIDS knowledge, while those who had a score of 0-2 were considered as having low knowledge. The construction of the overall HIV/AIDS knowledge variable has been published previously [14][15][16].…”