Knowledge of HIV Serodiscordance, Transmission, and Prevention among Couples in Durban, South Africa

William Kilembe, Kristin M Wall, Mammekwa Mokgoro, Annie Mwaanga, Elisabeth Dissen, Miriam Kamusoko, Hilda Phiri, Jean Sakulanda, Jonathan Davitte, Tarylee Reddy, Mark Brockman, Thumbi Ndung’u and Susan Allen

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: Objective: Couples’ voluntary HIV counseling and testing (CVCT) significantly decreases HIV transmission within couples, the largest risk group in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is not currently offered in most HIV testing facilities. To roll out such an intervention, understanding locale-specific knowledge barriers is critical. In this study, we measured knowledge of HIV serodiscordance, transmission, and prevention before and after receipt of CVCT services in Durban. Design: Pre- and post-CVCT knowledge surveys were administered to a selection of individuals seeking CVCT services. Methods: Changes in knowledge scores were assessed with McNemar Chi-square tests for balanced data and generalized estimating equation methods for unbalanced data. Results: The survey included 317 heterosexual black couples (634 individuals) who were primarily Zulu (87%), unemployed (47%), and had at least a secondary level education (78%). 28% of couples proved to be discordant. Only 30% of individuals thought serodiscordance between couples was possible pre‐CVCT compared to 95% post-CVCT. One-third thought there was at least one benefit of CVCT pre‐CVCT, increasing to 96% post‐CVCT. Overall, there were positive changes in knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention. However, many respondents thought all HIV positive mothers give birth to babies with AIDS (64% pre-CVCT, 59% post-CVCT) and that male circumcision does not protect negative men against HIV (70% pre-CVCT, 67% post-CVCT). Conclusions: CVCT was well received and was followed by improvements in understanding of discordance, the benefits of joint testing, and HIV transmission. Country-level health messaging would benefit from targeting gaps in knowledge about serodiscordance, vertical transmission, and male circumcision.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124548 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 24548&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0124548

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124548

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().