Knowledge, Awareness and Willingness to use HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Students at the University of Namibia

Abstract

Adequate knowledge, awareness and willingness to use HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is very important for HIV prevention mostly in developing countries where the burden of HIV infection continues to increase. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the level of knowledge, awareness, willingness to use HIV PrEP among tertiary students at the University of Namibia (UNAM), Rundu Campus. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional design was used with a total of 232 first-year students across all three faculties at UNAM, Rundu Campus being selected using stratified random sampling. The study results showed that the majority (52% of the participants were female and 72% of the participants were aged between 18 and 24 years. It was also found that 45% of the participants reported that they had heard of PrEP and, of this number (n = 104), 88% reported that they were willing to use PrEP, although 8% only of the respondents had actually used it. Of the respondents who reported that they had heard of PrEP, both gender and the faculty at which they were studying were significantly associated (all p-values were less than 0.05) with their awareness and knowledge of, and willingness to use, PrEP. The study findings indicated a low level of awareness, knowledge and use of HIV PrEP among the respondents, although the degree of willingness to use PrEP was high among them.