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Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria

Perception is fundamental in the fight against stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Perception generally influences discriminatory attitudes towards PLHIV which exacerbates their problems and quickens the degeneration of the disease from HIV to AIDS. This study examined the Anambra...

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Autores principales: Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi, Jegede, Samuel Ayodele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3914455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23808412
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2013.807052
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author Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi
Jegede, Samuel Ayodele
author_facet Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi
Jegede, Samuel Ayodele
author_sort Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi
collection PubMed
description Perception is fundamental in the fight against stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Perception generally influences discriminatory attitudes towards PLHIV which exacerbates their problems and quickens the degeneration of the disease from HIV to AIDS. This study examined the Anambra people's perception and knowledge of HIV/AIDS with the goal of creating knowledge on these issues in order to design effective intervention programmes towards the reduction of social stigmatization associated with the pandemic. The study was carried out in Idemmili North and Oyi local government areas of Anambra State. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to elicit information from respondents who were adult males and females of 18 years and above. The research instruments were questionnaires and in-depth interview schedule. Questionnaires were administered on 1000 respondents while 13 people were interviewed in-depth. Analysis of quantitative data were conducted by using the Statistical package for Social Sciences. Univariate analysis in the form of frequencies were conducted which generated the distribution of respondents across the research variables. Furthermore, multivariate analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses and sought for relationships among variables. The qualitative data were reported in themes based on the research objectives and were analysed jointly with the quantitative data. The findings were that majority of the respondents viewed HIV/AIDS as a disease that afflict immoral people and as a punishment from God. Only a handful of them saw the disease as a disease that could afflict anybody. Also, many of the respondents said that AIDS is real but showed a low level of knowledge. It was further indicated that there were significant relationships between educational level, sex, occupation, income influence perception and peoples' reactions to HIV positive status of a relative while there were no significant relationships between these variables and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. It was concluded that these negative perceptions were as a result of the people's low level of knowledge and cultural belief systems, which see a strange illness as punishment from God for disobedience. Furthermore, the fact that most of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents had significant relationship with perception and reaction to HIV was an indication that most people in the study area had a uniform perception. It was also an indication that government HIV/AIDS awareness programmes were not effective. It was recommended that strategies for effective HIV educational programme should be sought and carried out in the study area. Effective intervention programme have the power to change behaviours and would likely change the people's negative perception and low level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS, thereby reducing stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS.
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spelling pubmed-39144552014-02-10 Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi Jegede, Samuel Ayodele SAHARA J Original Article Perception is fundamental in the fight against stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Perception generally influences discriminatory attitudes towards PLHIV which exacerbates their problems and quickens the degeneration of the disease from HIV to AIDS. This study examined the Anambra people's perception and knowledge of HIV/AIDS with the goal of creating knowledge on these issues in order to design effective intervention programmes towards the reduction of social stigmatization associated with the pandemic. The study was carried out in Idemmili North and Oyi local government areas of Anambra State. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to elicit information from respondents who were adult males and females of 18 years and above. The research instruments were questionnaires and in-depth interview schedule. Questionnaires were administered on 1000 respondents while 13 people were interviewed in-depth. Analysis of quantitative data were conducted by using the Statistical package for Social Sciences. Univariate analysis in the form of frequencies were conducted which generated the distribution of respondents across the research variables. Furthermore, multivariate analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses and sought for relationships among variables. The qualitative data were reported in themes based on the research objectives and were analysed jointly with the quantitative data. The findings were that majority of the respondents viewed HIV/AIDS as a disease that afflict immoral people and as a punishment from God. Only a handful of them saw the disease as a disease that could afflict anybody. Also, many of the respondents said that AIDS is real but showed a low level of knowledge. It was further indicated that there were significant relationships between educational level, sex, occupation, income influence perception and peoples' reactions to HIV positive status of a relative while there were no significant relationships between these variables and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. It was concluded that these negative perceptions were as a result of the people's low level of knowledge and cultural belief systems, which see a strange illness as punishment from God for disobedience. Furthermore, the fact that most of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents had significant relationship with perception and reaction to HIV was an indication that most people in the study area had a uniform perception. It was also an indication that government HIV/AIDS awareness programmes were not effective. It was recommended that strategies for effective HIV educational programme should be sought and carried out in the study area. Effective intervention programme have the power to change behaviours and would likely change the people's negative perception and low level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS, thereby reducing stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS. Taylor & Francis 2013-06-28 2013-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3914455/ /pubmed/23808412 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2013.807052 Text en © 2013 Caroline Okumdi Muoghalu, Samuel Ayodele Jegede. Published by Taylor & Francis. http://www.informaworld.com/mpp/uploads/iopenaccess_tcs.pdf This is an open access article distributed under the Supplemental Terms and Conditions for iOpenAccess articles published in Taylor & Francis journals (http://www.informaworld.com/mpp/uploads/iopenaccess_tcs.pdf) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
spellingShingle Original Article
Muoghalu, Caroline Okumdi
Jegede, Samuel Ayodele
Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title_full Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title_fullStr Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title_short Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria
title_sort perception of hiv/aids among the igbo of anambra state, nigeria
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3914455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23808412
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2013.807052
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