Predictors of HIV/AIDS Knowledge and Attitude among Young Women of Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

IntroductionHIV/AIDS has become one of the world's most serious public health and development challenges, particularly in low-and middleincome countries [1]. Young women (aged 15-24 ) are particularly most vulnerable to HIV with infection rates twice as high as in young men, and accounting for 22% of all new HIV infections and 31% of new infections in Sub-Saharan Africa [2]. In this region, women acquire HIV infection at least 5-7 years earlier than men, often associated with sexual debut [3,4]. According to UNAIDS, the HIV prevalence for young women in Nigeria and DRC in 2013 were estimated 1.3% and 0.5% as compared to 0.7% and 0.3% of young men, respectively [4]. Young women are more susceptible to HIV, as a result of lack of correct health information, inadequate access to reproductive health services, engagement in risky behaviors, financial insecurity, regional and national conflicts, age-disparity, intergenerational sexual relationships, early, forced, and child marriage, gender violence and discrimination [5][6][7][8].Despite the fact that young women are highly exposed to HIV infection, they were also less likely to have adequate HIV/AIDS about knowledge compared to young men [9]. Adequate knowledge on HIV/AIDS is crucial for averting the HIV infection and ending the negative acceptance attitude and discrimination towards the infected and affected person [10]. Improving HIV/AIDS knowledge has been suggested as an effective HIV preventive behavioral intervention and has been associated with increased safe sex practices, HIV testing and treatment uptake [11]. Several studies of young people from Nigeria [12][13][14][15][16] and elsewhere [17][18][19][20][21] have sought to understand the gaps in their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, with a view towards creating an appropriately targeted educational interventions in improving their HIV/AIDS knowledge and decreasing their risky behaviors. Knowledge about HIV among young people in the western and central Africa continued to be alarmingly low. According to the most recent household surveys, only 24% of young women aged 15-24 years compared to 31% of young men of the same age had comprehensive and correct knowledge of how to prevent HIV [16]. On the other hand, negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and PLWHA have been shown to be hindrances for HIV prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, HIV status disclosure and treatment compliance [22,23]. Other studies showed the association between negative attitudes of people towards PLWHA and individual's wrong information about prevention and transmission of the disease [24,25].Young women are at the center of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, not only in terms of new infections but also an opportunities for halting the transmission of HIV [26]. United nations made a political declaration in 2016 with a specific target which showed that by 2020 the new HIV infections among young women aged 15 to 24 years should reduce to fewer than 100, 000. Nigeria and DRC were identified as Fast- Results: Awareness of the young women of Niger...

Knowledge of and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS among Iranian women

“…Married women showed significant differences in comparison to never-married women in terms of their knowledge about HIV/AIDS, which is expected due to their higher potential exposure to infection. This is similar to the result of a study conducted in Congo and Nigeria [17]. Our results showed that the wealth index was significantly associated with comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Iranian women.…”

“…Our results showed that the wealth index was significantly associated with comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Iranian women. This result is similar to those reported from other parts of the world [8,17,18]. Socioeconomic status is associated with increased exposure to media and more educational achievements, which have a positive impact on HIV/AIDS knowledge [17].…”

“…This result is similar to those reported from other parts of the world [8,17,18]. Socioeconomic status is associated with increased exposure to media and more educational achievements, which have a positive impact on HIV/AIDS knowledge [17]. With increasing levels of education, knowledge also increases, so that women with higher levels of education had better knowledge of HIV/AIDS.…”

The Knowledge, Perceptions, Attitudes, and Perceived Risk in HIV/AIDS among Women in Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…For example, Munusamy and Fadzil (2017) reported that Indian Malaysian women lack knowledge and awareness on HIV/AIDS which further lead to many of these women were unaware that HIV can be transmitted through their husbands. In the same year, a Nigerian study found despite high level of awareness of HIV/AIDS among Nigerian and Congolese young women, their level of knowledge on the subject matter was still low, and it is actually far below the target set in 2001 by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) which aims to ensure 95 per cent of young people aged 15-24 worldwide have access to correct information, services necessary to boost the life skills needed to reduce their risk of HIV infection (Gebremedhin et al, 2017). Gebremedhin and his colleagues also found that the acceptance attitude of young women in both countries towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) was also low.…”

“…Recent studies in Malaysia (Wan et al, 2012;Mohd Saad et al, 2013;Munusamy and Fadzil, 2017), Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo (Gebremedhin et al, 2017); India (Hazarika, 2010); Zambia (Mutombo and Maina, 2015) Iran (Tafazoli et al, 2016) and Saudi Arabia (Alwafi et al, 2018) have revealed that women (including female sex workers) have generally low knowledge about HIV/AIDS but have positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. There are positive associations between levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, HIV risk perception and education level of which the higher a woman's education, the highest her levels of knowledge about, the perception of HIV/AIDS risk (in relation to condom use) and positive acceptance attitudes towards HIV/AIDS.…”