Abstract:
Background: Despite being in high risk of HIV/AIDS infections, most adolescents do not test for HIV voluntarily. Adolescents aged 15 to 19 years who were tested for HIV in the last 12 months were 29.8% in Tanzania. However, some efforts have been made by Tanzania to get more people tested for HIV, but testing rate among adolescents is still low. The aim of this study is to determine the factors associated with HIV testing among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years in Mwanza Region. The results of the study will help HIV stakeholders to promote HIV testing among adolescent in Mwanza Region.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sengerema District in Mwanza Region from January to March 2019. A total of 357 adolescents aged 15 to 19 years were involved in the study. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select participants from whom data was collected through interviews and administered questionnaire. Data was entered and cleaned using Epi info v7.2.2, and analyzed using Stata v13. Measures of central tendency and dispersion were used to summarize continuous variables while frequency distributions were used for categorical variables. Prevalence odds ratios were used as a measure of association between voluntary HIV testing and independent variables.
Results: Results revealed that of the 356 adolescents, only 40% of them had ever tested for HIV voluntarily; and 88% were willing to test for HIV voluntarily. In crude analysis, factors which were significantly associated with HIV testing included age POR=1.8 95% CI, (1.15-2.82), fear of positive results POR=3, 95% CI(1.05-8.5), and ever discussed HIV VCT with parents POR=5.5, 95% CI, (3.38-8.97). Other factors included; ever discussed HIV VCT with partner POR=3.58 95% CI,(1.81-7.10), ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend POR=1.9, 95% CI, (1.24-3.14), know where VCT is conducted POR=4.4 95% CI,(2.07-9.30), ever attend HIV clubs POR=3.5, 95% CI, (2.15-5.7), and ever had sex POR=2.5, 95% CI,(1.53-4.06). In multivariate analysis, factors which were associated with HIV testing include knowledge of where VCT is conducted, ever discussed VCT with parents. School, media and health facilities are the major sources of information about HIV VCT.
Conclusion: There is low uptake of VCT among adolescents and factors which are associated with this low VCT uptake include knowledge of where VCT is conducted, ever discussed VCT with parents. Further research is recommended which should focus on strategies to enhance voluntary HIV testing uptake among adolescents.
