SOCIO - DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ATTENDEES OF AN INTEGRATED COUNSELLING & TESTING CENTRE: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF BIHAR

Abstract

Pandemic AIDS is one of the leading causes of global morbidity and mortality. Awareness generation and lifestyle modification are the main preventive and control measures for HIV/AIDS. So, socio-demographic profile and pattern of risk behaviour of population must be understood, for implementing Targeted Intervention towards high risk groups & bridge populations. OBJECTIVES: To explore various socio-demographic profile of clients attending ICTC; to determine source of referral of clients & to identify risk behaviour pattern of the attendees. MATERIALS & METHODS: Institution based descriptive cross sectional study from February 2014-April 2014. Data collected according to Helsinki Declaration of 1975; revised in 2000 and analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0. Results were expressed in simple proportions. RESULTS: out of 1567 attendees, 1019 (65.03%) were males and 548 (34.97%) were females with 9.31% total seropositivity. 2.62% of clients attended ICTC on their own will. Those who either did not responded or risk unknown to them, showed 16.44% seropositivity. CONCLUSION: In absence of prophylactic & curative treatment, more & more community based epidemiological studies should be conducted, for Behavioural Change Communication (BCC) in respect to socio-demographic strata and to interrupt & control transmission of the deadly disease.