Factors associated with the difference in HIV/AIDS prevalence between male and female adolescents and young adults in Uganda

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to study the factors associated with the difference in HIV/AIDS prevalence between male and female adolescents and young adults in Uganda. A nationally representative data from the 2011 Uganda Aids Indicator Survey (UAIS) was used for analysis. A weighted total of 3068 female and 1887 male aged 15-24 years who were tested for HIV and ever exposed to sexual activities were included in the analysis. Primary factors evaluated were; sex, age, marital status, place of residence, education level, wealth status, age at sexual debut, number of sexual partners and sexually transmitted infections using a nonlinear logistic decomposition model to partition the contribution of each factor to the difference in HIV prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults. The factors associated with the difference in HIV prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults were age, marital status, place of residence, age at sexual debut and sexually transmitted infections. It was found out that sexually transmitted infections (contribution 9%), age at sexual debut (contribution 9%) and marital status (contribution 8%) were significant contributors to the difference in HIV prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults. Furthermore, age (contribution 2%) and place of residence (contribution 0.2%) were also significant contributors to the difference in HIV prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults. In order to reduce on the difference in HIV/AIDS prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults in Uganda, the government should formulate HIV/AIDS prevention programmes with emphasis on prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Also, programs that could help curb earlier sexual debut among female and male adolescents and young adults should be emphasized. Future studies should focus on identifying data sources in Uganda that would allow analyzing the confounding factors that were not included in this study and elucidate how they contributed to the observed difference in HIV prevalence between female and male adolescents and young adults.