| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study was to identify the determinants of PMTCT knowledge in Central Uganda. It was guided by three specific objectives which included:(i) to determine the effect of the socio-economic factors on PMTCT knowledge in Central Uganda, (ii) to establish the effect of the health service related factors on PMTCT knowledge in Central Uganda, and (iii) to examine the influence of the district of residence on the variability of PMTCT knowledge in Central Uganda.
The study used secondary data from the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) community survey that was conducted by MEEPP in the year 2015. A descriptive summary of the different socio-economic and health service related characteristics was undertaken using frequency distributions at Univariate level while cross tabulations were used to execute the bivariate analysis. In order to measure of association for ordinal variables, the Somer’s D statistic (primarily an asymmetric measure of association) which is Proportional Reduction in Error (PRE) measure was used. At the multivariate level, a random effects ordered logistic regression model was fitted in order to assess the effect of the selected independent variables on PMTCT knowledge.
The study results showed that the sex, age, current marital status, highest education level, distance to the HIV testing place, having ever tested for HIV, and knowledge on HIV transmission had a significant effect on the PMTCT knowledge. The females were more likely to be more knowledgeable about PMTCT than males (AOR=1.35, CI=1.05- 1.74). With regard to age, the respondents who were aged 19 to 29 years were more likely to be more knowledgeable about PMTCT than those who were less than 18 years of age (AOR=1.55, CI=1.01-2.38). With regard to marital status, the respondents who were widowed were more likely to be more knowledgeable about PMTCT than those who were single (AOR=4.91, CI=1.60-15.01). With regard to highest level of education level of the respondent, the respondents whose level of education was at post-secondary category were more likely to be more knowledgeable about PMTCT than those that had never attended school (AOR=2.82, CI=1.36- 5.87). The study results also showed that the district effect was significant, suggesting that there was a significant amount of between district variability in the knowledge of PMTCT.
Therefore, this study recommends that the Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Health should intensify the health education programs specifically targeting the men and also should continue encouraging persons to undertake HIV testing services. | en_US |
