The Effects of Socio-demographic Characteristics on Indonesian Women’s Knowledge of HIV/AIDS: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Objectives The purpose of this study was to characterize Indonesian women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS and to investigate the effects of socio-demographic characteristics thereupon with the goal of supporting the prevention and early detection of HIV/AIDS. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the standard Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) in 2012. A total of 34 984 subjects ranged in age from 15 years to 49 years. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test and logistic regression to identify the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on Indonesian women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Results All socio-demographic characteristics except marital status were related to knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Indonesian women in the univariate analysis ( p <0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that only age group, education level, location of residence, and wealth index were related to Indonesian women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS ( p <0.05). Conclusions Indonesian women’s insufficient knowledge related to HIV/AIDS shows that the provision of accurate and comprehensive information related to HIV/AIDS are components of prevention and control interventions that should be improved. With greater knowledge, women are expected to be more likely to determine their own and their partners’ human immunodeficiency virus status and to take appropriate preventive steps.

Factors Influencing Hiv Knowledge Among Women of Childbearing Age in South Sumatra, Indonesia

“…Our findings concur other studies conducted with Indonesian, Palestinian, Tajik, and Cambodian women (14,18,20,31), that women who had a higher education were more likely to have good HIV related knowledge. Women living in urban area had a better understanding on HIV prevention and MTCT.…”

“…Further research is warranted on this topic. Similar findings were reported in IDHS 2012 in 33 provinces, three out of 10 women think that someone can get HIV from witchcraft (14) . A similar finding was also recently reported in similar national surveys conducted in Bangladesh and Cambodia (19,31) .…”

“…A dummy variable of a comprehensive knowledge-indicator 1, was categorised as high and low level based on median of the total score because it wasn't fit of normality distribution, while the indicators 2 to 5 were categorized into high (all answers are correct) and low (only one or two correct answers). This is in accordance with the cut-off off the measurement of comprehensive knowledge related to HIV (12,14) .…”

“…A Cambodian Demographic and Health Survey in 2005 found that compared to their peers in Bangladesh, Cambodian women have a slightly better understanding about HIV misconceptions (19,31) . Nevertheless, this study found that women in South Sumatra have better understanding on HIV knowledge that every healthy people can be affected HIV and physical changes cannot help to recognise HIV-positive person in wider population, similar to national level, Indonesia (14) .…”

“…HIV include a range of social, economic and environmental factors, such as income, social status, education, violence, and sexual and cultural norms (7)(8)(9)(10)(11) . Previous studies in Indonesia by Angkasawati and Arifin (2010), Iswanto (2011), and Pradnyani, Wibowo and Mahmudah (2019) using the 2007 National Basic Health Research (NBHR) and 2007 and 2012 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), proposed the following social determinants of HIV knowledge among women of childbearing age: education, marriage status, type of residence, working status and wealth (12)(13)(14) . Following those studies, the 2010 NBHR and the 2012 IDHS indicated that only 11.4% of the total of 91,433 women respondents and 12% of total of of 45,607 women surveyed respectively had comprehensive HIV/AIDS knowledge across 33 provinces (15,16), , an important determinant in HIV vulnerability.…”