Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is best prevented by consistent condom utilization. However, Dr. Alex Yeshaneh, from the College of Medicine and Health Science at Wolkite University in Wolkite, Ethiopia, and other researchers assessed HIV-positive patients attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics in North West Ethiopia, and found that consistent usage of condoms was low.
Their study, published in PLoS One, detailed that “residence, marital status, level of education and number of partners were significantly associated factors of consistent condom use.”
The study included 419 patients who were HIV-positive and were receiving ART. The participants were reached with systemic sampling and completed a structured questionnaire.
The response rate of the participants was 100%, and led the investigators to estimate that the rate of consistent condom utilization was 49.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 42.2–56.5). As mentioned, the team found that place of residence (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.16; 95% CI, 1.05–4.45), marital status (AOR = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.05–0.67), number of partners (AOR = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.07–0.55) and level of education (AOR = 5.33; 95% CI, 1.57–18.08) were associated with consistent utilization when the data were controlled for confounding variables.
Researchers ultimately deemed that “health education program and counseling services should be started to increase knowledge about way of transmission and appropriate use of condoms, increase self-efficacy towards condom use and reduction in the number of sexual partners,” for patients living with HIV.
Source: PLoS One
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261581
