Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and its determinants in India: Findings from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–2021)
Introduction HIV is a chronic viral infection that invariably progresses into a life-threatening condition known as AIDS. India has the third highest burden of HIV in the world with an estimated 2.3 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) in 2021. Existing studies assessing the knowledge and attitude...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
European Publishing
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Population Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.populationmedicine.eu/Knowledge-of-HIV-AIDS-and-its-determinants-in-India-Findings-from-the-National-Family,163113,0,2.html |
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| Summary: | Introduction
HIV is a chronic viral infection that invariably
progresses into a life-threatening condition known as AIDS.
India has the third highest burden of HIV in the world with
an estimated 2.3 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) in
2021. Existing studies assessing the knowledge and attitude
towards HIV/AIDS in India have small sample sizes with
regional bias and lack of representativeness. Thus, the study
objective was to determine the proportion and predictors of
knowledge and attitude of HIV/AIDS in the Indian population
through a large, nationally representative demographic and
health survey (DHS).
Methods
A repeated cross-sectional secondary data analysis
utilizing the DHS data from India’s National Family Health
Survey NFHS-5 (2019–2021) and NFHS-4 (2015–2016)
was conducted, wherein the participants were interviewed
face-to-face by trained field investigators. A binary logistic
regression analysis was conducted to find out the factors
associated with suboptimal knowledge and lack of positive
attitude towards PLHIV.
Results
The NFHS-5 included a sample of 202052
participants while the NFHS-4 included 225876 participants.
In NFHS-5, 25.80% of the respondents had comprehensive
knowledge of HIV whereas 26.54% reported a positive
attitude, indicative of a small reduction from 26.38% and
28.67%, respectively, in the NFHS-4 survey. Factors such as
male gender, increasing age, employment status, higher level
of education, frequency of reading newspapers and watching
television were associated with significantly higher odds
of having comprehensive knowledge and positive attitude
towards HIV. Moreover, there were 48.21% and 58.56%
respondents in the NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 survey, respectively,
who were aware of the mode of transmission of HIV from
mother to child.
Conclusions
Nearly three in four young and middle-aged
Indians have a persistent lack of comprehensive knowledge
of HIV, which increases their risk of infection, a situation
which has worsened in a 5-year period. Adverse social
determinants contribute to suboptimal knowledge but not
attitude towards PLHIV. |
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| ISSN: | 2654-1459 |