Perceived Risk of Contracting HIV and AIDS among Sexually Active Unmarried Young People in Zambia

The paper explored gender differences in factors affecting perceived risk of contracting HIV and AIDS among sexually active unmarried young people in Zambia. The data used was from the Zambia Demographic Health Survey (2013-2014), logistic regression analysis was used to identify the gender differences in perceived risk of acquiring HIV and AIDS. The study revealed that 61% of females and 64.4% of males reported low perceived risk of contracting HIV and 16.5% of females and 16.6% of males reported having a high risk of getting HIV/AIDS. Logistic regression analysis also identified wealth index, exposure to media, having had STDs in the last 12 months, consistent use of condoms with all partners and drinking alcohol as strong predictors of respondent’s likelihood of low risk perception of contracting HIV and AIDS. The analysis further indicated that females who used condoms consistently with all partners were 1.2 times more likely to report being at low risk of contracting HIV and AIDS. This suggests that interventions that seek to reduce the rate of HIV infection may need to focus on increasing risk perception among young people as a protective factor.

Perceptions of Risk of Contracting HIV among Married Men and Women in Zambia

This study explored the perceived risk of contracting HIV among the currently married men and women in Zambia. The analysis was carried out on data from the latest Zambia Demographic Health Survey (2014).Results indicated that 48% of the currently married women, and 61% of the currently married men reported low perceived risk for contracting HIV. The results also indicate that age, place of residence, wealth status, having had sex with three or more partners for the last 12 months, drinking alcohol and condom use were associated with high risk perception of contracting HIV for men. Women who had three or more sexual partners during the last 12 months were 1.5 times more likely to perceive high risk for contracting HIV than those who had less than three partners. Among the males, those who had sex with three or more sexual partners were 1.7 times more likely to perceive being at high risk for contracting HIV than those who had sex with less than three partners. Respondents from the higher socio-economic group were 1.3 times more likely to report low risk of contracting HIV as compared to those from middle and lower socio-economic group. These findings suggest that behaviour change campaigns encouraging marriedmen and women to accurately assess their personal risk of contracting HIV should be complemented with targetedawareness messages emphasizing the positive attributes of usingcondom.