HIV/AIDS- RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND DETERMINANTS OF VOLUNTARY COUNSELING AND TESTING AMONG GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES RESIDING IN SEKA TOWN, JIMMA ZONE, SOUTH WEST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Voluntary counseling and HIV testing (VCT) has been shown to be effective in reducing HIV prevalence in different countries. This study is to assess AIDS related knowledge and determinants of VCT in government workers in Seka town, Jimma zone, southwest Ethiopia.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on HIV/AIDS related knowledge and determinants of VCT covering all government workers residing in Seka town, Jimma zone on January 25 and January 26, 2003. Data was collected by the use of a self-administered structured questionnaire translated in to Amharic language and analyzed by using SPSS for windows version 11.0.

RESULTS: Two hundred fifty two government workers were covered by the study with a response rate of 81 %; 172(68.3%) were males and 80 (31.790 were females. One hundred twenty nine (51.2%) had tertiary level education and 61.1% earn a monthly income of more than 500 Birr. Nearly 91 % were knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS; but only 19.2% of the respondents considered them selves to be at risk of acquiring HIV infection. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS was found to he significantly associated with educational status, occupation and monthly income (P<0.05). Majority of the respondents (75%) had favorable response to VCT related attitude statements. Three-fourth of the subjects claimed to have an intention of undergoing VCT. The main barriers for refusal of the test in this study were fear of positive test result (41.3%), perception of one's serostatus as being confidently negative (38.1 %), and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS (25.4%). This study has also shown that considerable proportion of the participants did not have the appropriate feeling towards HIV test results. (Ethiop J Health Sci. 2005; 15(1):63-74)