Perception of High School Students on risk for acquiring HIV and utilization of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) service for HIV in Debre-berhan Town, Ethiopia: a quantitative cross-sectional study

BMC Research Notes

Desalegn Woldeyohannes³  Girmay Medhin²  Woldaregay Erku²  Solomon Sisay¹ 

[1]Department of Biomedicine, School of Health Science, Dilla University, P.O. Box 419, Dilla, Ethiopia

[2]Department of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

[3]Department of Public Health, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, P.O. Box 16417, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

关键词: Ethiopia;    Debre-berhan;    HIV;    VCT use;    Risk perception;    Students;   

Others  :  1130556
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-518

 received in 2014-01-10, accepted in 2014-07-30,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic among youth is largely ignored and remains invisible to both young people themselves and to the society as a whole. Thus, the aim of the study was to assess the extent of perception risk of HIV and utilization of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service among high school students at Debre-berhan Town, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2010 up to January 2011 among secondary school students at Debre-berhan Town. Perception risk and VCT use were considered as dependant variables. A stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit study participants by taking schools as strata. Semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results

A total of 339 students were consented to participate in the study and the response rate was 96.3%. The student ages’ were ranged from 15 up to 24 years. Among the study participants, 30 (8.8%) had sexual contact and the mean age of first sexual encounter was 16.4 (SD =2.05) years. Of sexually active students, 12 (40%) had sex with different persons within the last 6 months, 13 (43.3%) had ever used condom and 15 (50%) had used VCT service. There was no statistically significant association between risk perception towards HIV infection and ever use of VCT service (AOR (95% CI) = 1.0(0.30, 4.02).

Conclusions

Some students were engaged in risky sexual behavior even though they had heard about HIV/AIDS. The perception of risk for acquisition of HIV infection and utilization of VCT were low. Thus, education on topic of HIV/AIDS through integrating as part of school curriculum and encouraging the existing health institutions to provide youth-friendly sexual counseling services including VCT for HIV are strongly recommended.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Sisay et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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