Knowledge and risk perception about HIV among Businessmen in Tamil Nadu

[Guest guest]

From: Raviraaj M <raviraajm@...>Subject: Knowledge and risk perception about HIV among Businessmen in Tamil Nadu" Moderator" <-owner >Received: Friday, 7 November, 2008, 2:42 AM

Dear Moderator

I would like to share the findings from some studies that I have conducted among Businessmen in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu. This study was taken up as part of research work conducted earlier this year through my organization Kalanjiyam Trust, based in Chennai. The findings from this study were presented on abstract CD-ROM at the World AIDS conference held in Mexico in August 2008.

Kindly post these findings on the news group.

thanking you,

Munusamy Raviraaj

raviraajm@... / kalanjiyam@...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knowledge & risk perception about HIV among businessmen in Madurai District, Tamil Nadu

Munsamy Raviraaj, Kalanjiyam Trust, Chennai

Background

With the continued spread of HIV / AIDS in our country we need to identify more innovative ways to deliver and spread prevention messages. It is particularly important to target different general population segments which are most often left out by prevention programs. One such important group is the segment of businessmen. Be it a small, medium or large business, they come in contact with many different population groups of the community due to the nature of their work and can therefore be agents for spreading information / awareness on issues of community concern. Businessmen are mostly on the look out for profit by capitalizing on opportunities. Yet it is not very often that we expect them to have social responsibility to their communities. Prevention programs

may capitalize on such segments for spreading messages on HIV. In the context of HIV / AIDS, little is known about this segment of the population, their knowledge, awareness and views on HIV/ AIDS.

We therefore took up a study of businessmen in Madurai city. Madurai is situated in the center part of Tamil Nadu and very well known as a temple city and major tourist attraction. Besides this, it is also a major business center attracting businessmen from all over the state and specifically acting as a link between the southern and northern parts of Tamil Nadu.

A quantitative self administered questionnaire was developed and translated into Tamil. Questions were asked on knowledge of HIV and ART, perceptions and views on HIV/ AIDS.

Methodology

Businessmen were primarily sampled from various parts of Madurai city. Effort was made to get different types of businessmen from a wide geographic area. Ten different types of businessmen were first selected from different parts of the city and asked to participate in the study; they were asked to refer two more businessmen known to them; these two businessmen were then contacted and asked to participate. Once again they were asked to refer to another two businessmen know to them. In this manner businessmen were reached and a random sample of businessmen across Madurai was collected for the study.

Findings:

Profile of participants: A total of 94 men and 4 women from different profession were interviewed during the assessment. The average age of those interviewed was 37.5 years; and average number of years in the current occupation was 13.6 years. Nearly one fourth of the businessmen were in a family run business. About 29% of were 30 years or younger; 36% between 31 and 40 years; and 20% were between 41 and 50 years.

Fifty nine percent of businessmen reported reading newspaper daily and 53% reported watching TV everyday. Forty four percent of them reported getting information about health mainly through TV, 22% from radio and 7% from daily newspaper.

Knowledge on HIV and AIDS

The majority (84%) of businessmen had heard of AIDS but 11% were unaware. Again the main source of information about HIV was TV (78%) followed by radio (7.6%) and daily newspaper (9.8%). Overall 17% of businessmen reported having seen a HIV infected person before.

On how HIV can be transmitted: A majority of businessmen interviewed had good knowledge about all the methods of transmission. Transmission from mother to child had the lowest level of awareness among this group.

Knowledge on the 4 ways of HIV transmission

%

From mother to child

62%

From infected blood transfusion

97%

From using infected needle

99%

From unprotected sex with infected person

99%

Misconceptions and Stigma about HIV transmission: Besides understanding levels of knowledge, it is also important to know the level of misconceptions about HIV. These are important to gauge as they are also an indicator of the level of stigma associated with being infected. A set of questions was therefore asked to gauge this.

Misconceptions and Stigma

%

By Mosquito

15%

Using same toilet as infected persons

9.9%

Sharing a meal with infected person

10%

Sitting close to HIV infected person

4.4%

Hugging a person with HIV

5.5%

Hand shaking a person with HIV

1%

Through Sneeze, cough or spit

21%

Through contact with eyes, tears

13%

Through sharing clothes

12%

This reveals that misconception on ways of HIV transmission is limited among businessmen; the highest misconception exists on whether HIV can be transmitted through body fluids other than blood.

Preventing HIV transmission: About 76% of businessmen reported that HIV / AIDS can be prevented. The majority (93%) correctly agreed that it is not possible to identify a HIV infected person by looking at them. We also asked respondents about all the different ways that they might prevent from getting infected with HIV.

Ways to prevent HIV

Yes

No

Don't know

Abstain from sex

63%

35%

5%

Always use condoms

97%

1%

2.3%

Stay faithful to one partner

92%

2.3%

6%

Avoid sex with IDUs

78%

10%

13%

Avoid blood transfusions

74%

21%

6%

Avoid sharing needles

89%

6.5%

4.3%

Do physical exercise

19%

58%

23%

While 97% said that always using a condom is a sure way to prevent HIV, 63% felt that abstaining from sex was also way of prevention. Staying faithful to one partner was also recognized by a majority as a method of prevention. It is interesting to note the many felt that blood transfusions were to be avoided as a way of preventing HIV.

While knowledge about ways of HIV transmission was high, when we evaluated more in-depth, we found that less than half (44%) of businessmen were aware of all four ways of HIV transmission and 85% had some misconception or other.

Knowledge about HIV testing and treatment: It is of most concern to note that 44% were not aware about where HIV testing was done. About five percent of businessmen interviewed knew a person with HIV. On the issue of cure for HIV, 16% believed that HIV can be cured and about 43% were unsure about a cure. Similarly 27% of businessmen were aware that there are drugs to treat HIV/ AIDS; nearly 35% thought that there were no drugs and another 38% did not know about this. In line with this, about 8% of the businessmen interviewed were aware of ART

Perceptions of risk: About 27% of businessmen perceived men to be most at risk for HIV; 10% perceived that women were at most risk; and 20% perceived that those having unprotected sex were most at risk. Few perceived any self risk (4%) of being infected by HIV; yet 7.4% of businessmen reported having ever tested for HIV.

Conclusions:

This study gives some positive information on the knowledge and views of a segment of businessmen from a major business center such as Madurai. It is revealing to know the extent of awareness among this group and informative to identify the gaps in knowledge. Different strategies must be taken up by all stakeholders working at the grass root levels to reach such segments in our society and find innovative ways to spread messages on HIV so that there can be a diffusion of information across the community. Such missed prevention opportunities by programs will likely lead to significant costs in the long run.