Psycho-Cultural Variables Predicting Attitude of Students’ towards HIV Counselling and Testing in Selected Tertiary Institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria.
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Transcampus Interdisciplinary Research and Study Group
Abstract
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The aim of the present study was to assess attitude of young people (n=287, mean=20.5 years)
towards testing for HIV/AIDS. The participants completed a standard socio-demographic
questionnaire, indicating sexual behaviour, cultural beliefs and practices, attitude to HCT, and
knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Descriptive and inferential statistics at 0.05 alpha level were used to
analyze the data. The study indicates that most participants have poor knowledge of HCT centres
in their communities, but had a fairly high knowledge level of HIV. The findings of this study
include that there is a significant difference in the disposition to HCT between respondents who
have experienced sexual intercourse and those who have not (t = 3.866, df = 285: p < 0.05) and
between male and female respondents (t = 4.775, df = 285; p < 0.05). The study also shows that
knowledge of HIV/AIDS was the strongest predictor of attitude of young people towards HCT (
= 0.547; t = 3.458 p < 0.05), closely followed by cultural practices ( = 0.324; t = 2.740 p < 0.05)
while sexual behaviour was not a strong predictor ( = 0.041; t = 0.543 p>0.05). The present
study challenged the adequacy of reproductive health knowledge available to Nigerian students
and based on the findings in this study, it was recommended that young people should be
sufficiently enlightened and counselled on the imperative of HIV counselling and testing.
Keywords: HIV counselling and testing (HCT), young people, attitude, knowledge of HIV/AIDS
Keywords
BF Psychology, RA Public aspects of medicine, RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine