Constraints to Utilization of HIV/Aids Prevention Strategies Among Rural Women in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined constraints to utilization of some selected HIV/AIDS prevention strategies, with a view to measuring it and making recommendations there from as way to mitigate the spread of the epidemic A multistage sampling procedure was used for selecting 180 respondents for the study. Interview schedule was designed to obtain information from the respondents. The statistical analytical tools employed for the study included both descriptive (frequencies counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and the inferential statistical tools such as Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used. The major findings of the study show that majority of the respondents were more than 30years of age, while the mean age of the respondents was 34.8years. Many (60.6%) of the respondents were married, large population of the respondents were literate with mean year of schooling of 9.59. The distribution of the respondents by their information needs revealed that information on finance ranked first with WMS of 2.76 while health ranked second with the WMS of 2.38. Interaction with health worker, market and radio were the major sources through which information on the HIV/AIDS preventive strategies was gotten by the respondents. Majority (85%) of the respondents indicated avoiding sharing of sharp objects and condom use (84.4%) as the major HIV/AIDS preventive strategies that the respondents were aware of. Fidelity, (2.09) and Avoiding sharing of sharp objects (1.59) were the major preventive strategies the respondents had more knowledge about. Avoidance of  sharing of sharp objects (1.76) and condom use (1.63) ranked first and second respectively as the major preventive strategies commonly used by the respondents, stigmatization and unavailability of the preventive strategies were the major constraints to the use HIV/AIDS preventive strategies.

            The results of Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed a significant relationship between some selected socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and the utilization of HIV/AIDS preventive strategies revealed that a significant relationship exists between age (r = 0.219^** p = 0.003) of the respondents, years of schooling (r =0.606^**, p = 0.000)  and the years of staying in the community ( r = 0.326^**  p = 0.000) and utilization of HIV/AIDS preventive strategies. Since stigmatization was reported to be the major constraint to the utilization of the preventive strategies, it’s therefore recommended that more awareness needs to be done against stigmatization of the usage of various preventive strategies and Condom should be made readily available to the respondents in order to curb the menace of HIV/AIDS.