Knowledge, Perceptions And Behavior Associated With Hiv/aids Among Somali Refugees On Transit Undergoing Medical Screening In Nairobi
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Date
2007Author
Kisia, Christine W
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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AIM:
The study was conducted on urban Somali refugees on transit and undergoing HIV and
AIDS counselling sessions as part of their medical screening process at the IOM's
Migration Health Assessment Centre (MHAC) in Nairobi just before resettlement to
other countries. The study's main objective was to establish and compare the knowledge,
perceptions and behaviors of both before and after undergoing the sessions.
METHODOLOGY:
A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to establish this. Both qualitative and
quantitative methods were used to collect data. Consecutive sampling of respondent's
who were of Somali origin, aged 15 years and above, who had never undergone
counseling and those who gave informed consents was used to obtain the sample. A total
of 377 respondents were interviewed before the counselling sessions, with 360 of them
same respondents re-interviewed after. Also eight focus group discussions were
conducted and 6 key informants interviewed.
RESULTS:
There was almost a balance between the genders, with male respondents slightly more.
Most of the respondents were single, between 15 to 30 years old, having been displaced
from their country for the last 15 years and had no form of education.
The findings generally indicate that respondents had heard of HIV and AIDS and its
emergence as a global challenge, with radio and television being the most common
sources of information. However, knowledge on the various modes of HIV transmission
and prevention was limited, with lots of myths and misconceptions existing among the
respondents.
HIV/AIDS related knowledge were quite low before the counseling sessions, but did
slightly improve after from 6.1% to 15.6% respondents scoring adequately in HIV/AIDS
related knowledge (75% and above scores).
This change in knowledge though slight was statistically significant. However, some of
the misconceptions like the spread of HIV through mosquito bites actually increased.
Respondents' attitudes towards condom use, people living with HIV and AIDS and HIV
testing before marriage were generally negative before counseling. Most of these
attitudes changed significantly after counselling with more respondents willing to care for
people living with HIV/AIDS and also go for HIV testing before marriage. In general, the
community appears to be tolerant of their own HIV infected members, but regard
outsiders who are already infected as immoral and sinners.
More respondents were still not willing to use condoms for any reason in future after
undergoing the counseling sessions. Overall this change in respondents' attitude was also
statistically significant. Respondents with increased knowledge levels had more negative
attitudes towards individuals with HIV/AIDS, condom use and even HIV testing before
marriage. There was a significant improvement in the respondents overall HIV and AIDS
related attitudes, with respondent's attitude scores increasing from 13.5% before
counseling to 93.3% after. This is a significant finding and suggests that the pre-test
counselling sessions offered to the refugees before resettlement are effective HIV/AIDS
preventive strategies. There was the generalized belief that HIV/AIDS was not a threat to
the community and that it did not affect this community, thus their perceived personal
risk was low. Most believed that HIV/AIDS only affected immoral people who did not
follow Islam and the will of God.
CONCLUSION:
This study suggests that knowledge about HIV/AIDS is low in this refugee population.
The population receives little information on HIV/AIDS, while condom knowledge is
particularly low with men and women having a negative attitude to condom use. It does
not perceive HIV/AIDS as threat in its community and associates it with immorality.
The findings indicate a need for targeted, culturally sensitive HIV/AIDS information
program. A follow up long term study is also proposed to find out any behavioral changes
resulting from information received during HIV and AIDS counseling sessions among
this community.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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