HIV and AIDS related knowledge, beliefs and attitudes among rural communities hard to reach in Sudan

HTML  XML Download Download as PDF (Size: 194KB)  PP. 1494-1501  
DOI: 10.4236/health.2013.59203    4,740 Downloads   7,288 Views  Citations
Author(s)

ABSTRACT

Background and Objective: There is a rising concern about Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) related knowledge in rural communities of Sudan. This study focuses on determining the extend of knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about HIV/ AIDS among rural communities difficult to access in the six States of Sudan. Subjects and Methods: Six thousand and one hundred twenty five respondents were interviewed through the method of house-to-house visits. A structured questionnaire was administered by research assistants recruited from the Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University during a rural residency campaign in six states of Central, Eastern and Northern Sudan during 2008/2009. Results: Of the total interviewees, 48% were aware of the HIV/AIDS risk; 46% reported to have good health seeking behaviors for HIV/AIDS. 54.4% of women reported to have better knowledge about the disease than men (45.6%). 38% (2005) had not heard of safety use of condom whereas 16% (320) had used it. Logistic regression revealed that 5.3% of knowledge about the disease was explained by gender, education and religion adjusted over age of the respondents. Conclusions: Mass media were the most common source of information about the existent risk of HIV/AIDS in rural communities. These findings could assist Sudanese National Aids Programme (SNAP), healthcare providers and policymakers to develop informative materials and health education programs to educate rural community is about the risk of HIV/AIDS.

Share and Cite:

Khamis, A. (2013) HIV and AIDS related knowledge, beliefs and attitudes among rural communities hard to reach in Sudan. Health, 5, 1494-1501. doi: 10.4236/health.2013.59203.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.