TRENDS AND DETERMINANTS OF COMPREHENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF HIV/AIDS AMONG GHANAIANS BASED ON GHANA DEMOGRAPHIC HEALTH SURVEYS, 1998-2014.

ABSTRACT

Since the first few cases were reported in 1981, HIV/AIDS and its related illnesses have been

one of the prominent causes of death globally. The disease has been estimated to reduce

economic growth rates by 2-4% a year across Africa. This study examines the trends and

determinants of comprehensive knowledge (CK) of HIV/AIDS among Ghanaians.

The data used for this study were drawn from Ghana Demographic Health Surveys, 1998-

2014. A separate analysis was performed on each survey-year data and GDHS pooled dataset

which was obtained by combining the survey years from 1998 to 2014. Also, both the male

and female data sets were combined. The samples used for the study were: 6,389, 10706,

9484 and 13784 from1998, 2003, 2008, and 2014 respectively. The pooled dataset consisted

of 40363 responses from 1998-2014 survey-years. Pearson Chi-square test and multilevel

simple logistic analyses were used to examine the associations between the study variables

and CK of HIV/AIDS.

CK of HIV/AIDS was found to be lower in women (29.24%) than in men (37.7%) using the

pooled dataset. Greater Accra region recorded the highest percentage of CK of HIV/AIDS

(44.18%) whereas Northern region recorded the lowest (17.87%) among the 10

administrative regions in Ghana using the pooled GDHS dataset. The odds of having CK of

HIV/AIDS among people living in the rural areas was also found to be 55% less than among

those living in urban areas after controlling for other study variables. The results also indicate

a decrease of CK of HIV/AIDS from 37.35% in 2008 to 32.5% in 2014. Respondents who

were employed were 0.96 times less likely to have CK of HIV/AIDS than those who were not

employed in the multivariable analysis.

Despite the awareness of the disease, respondents recorded lower levels of CK of HIV/AIDS

especially in the rural areas. Females were also found to have lower CK of HIV/AIDS than

their male counterparts. Hence educative programs are recommended particularly among

women in order for them to be well informed about HIV preventive methods and also to

correct some misconceptions of the disease.