Health and social support services to HIV/AIDS infected individuals in Tanzania: employees and employers perceptions

BMC Public Health

Bruno P Mmbando³  Raphael Kukula⁴  Honest Anicetus²  Telemu Kassile¹ 

[1] Faculty of Science, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O Box 3038, Morogoro, Tanzania;Directorate of Preventive Services, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, P.O. Box 9083, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;National Institute for Medical Research, Tanga Research Centre, P. O. Box 5004, Tanga, Tanzania;Occupational Health and Safety, P.O. Box 790055, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

关键词: Workplaces;    Workload;    Treatment and nutritional support;    Family member;   

Others  :  1129179
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-630

 received in 2014-01-24, accepted in 2014-06-18,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

HIV is a major public health problem in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It often leads to loss of productive labour and disruption of existing social support system which results in deterioration of population health. This poses a great challenge to infected people in meeting their essential goods and services. This paper examines health and social support services provided by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in Tanzania.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study, which employed qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection and analysis. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to assess the health and social support services provision at employers and employees perspectives. The study participants were employees and employers from public and private organizations.

Results

A total of 181 employees and 23 employers from 23 workplaces aged between 18–68 years were involved. The results show that 23.8% (i.e., 20.4% males and 27.3% females) of the employees had at least one member of the family or close relatives living with HIV at the time of the study. Fifty six percent of the infected employees reported to have been receiving health or social support from their employers. Employees’ responses were consistent with those reported by their employers. A total of 12(52.2%) and 11(47.8%) employers reported to have been providing health and social supports respectively. Female employees (58.3%) from the private sector (60.0%) were more likely to receive supports than male employees (52.6%) and than those from the public sector (46.2%). The most common health and social support received by the employees were treatment, and nutritional support and reduction of workload, respectively.

Conclusions

HIV/AIDS infected employees named treatment and nutritional support, and soft loans and reduced workload respectively, as the most important health and social supports they needed from their employers. This study provides baseline information for further studies on provision of health and social support services by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in the context of a developing economy like Tanzania.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Kassile et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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