Simon Afewerki Gebremedhin, Wang Youjie and Eyasu Habte Tesfamariam
Background: Adequate HIV/AIDS knowledge and positive attitude towards People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are very important and vanguards in averting and ending the epidemics. This study was aimed at assessing predictors of HIV/AIDS knowledge and acceptance attitude towards PLWHA among young women aged 15-24 of Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which used 2013 Nigeria and 2013-2014 DRC demographic health survey data, with a sample size of 14,619 in Nigeria and 7661 for DRC. SPSS Version 22 was employed to analyze chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression. P-values of 0.05 were set up to show the statistical significance. Results: Awareness of the young women of Nigeria (91.1%) and DRC (90.6%) was universal. HIV/AIDS knowledge (33.6% Vs 9.8% respectively) and acceptance attitude towards PLWHA (28.4% vs. 3.2%, respectively) was low. Multivariate logistic regression model showed that age, residence, education, religion, marital status and wealth index were significant associates with HIV/AIDS knowledge. Similarly, age, education, religion, marital status, wealth index and HIV/AIDS knowledge showed significant associations with acceptance attitude towards PLWHA. After controlling the confounding variables, higher HIV/AIDS knowledge (OR 1.09, 95% C.I 1.01-1.17) and acceptance attitude towards PLWHA women (OR2.54, 95% C.I 2.17-2.98) was observed among young women in Nigeria than in DRC. Conclusion: Increased HIV/AIDS awareness was observed. However the level knowledge on HIV/AIDS and positive attitude towards PLWHA was very low. Hence educational intervention programs to increase the knowledge of the young women on the epidemic are highly needed.
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