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Desire for, and Uptake of HIV Tests by Ghanaian Women: The Relevance of Community Level Stigma

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Abstract

Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) has been recognized as the crux of HIV surveillance, prevention and treatment programs. Since 2000, Ghana government has launched a number of HIV prevention and treatment programs intended to increase VCT services. Despite these efforts, uptake of testing is still low, though many women reported interest in getting tested. The disconnect between intention and action is attributable to several factors, including HIV-related stigma. The study used data from the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and fitted complementary log-log models to regress women’s desire for and uptake of an HIV test on levels of personal and community stigma. Consistent with findings from previous research, the study revealed significant associations between a number of socio-demographic and socio-cognitive variables and the desire for and uptake of an HIV test by Ghanaian women. Most significantly, the study showed that widespread stigma in the community exert greater negative effects on individuals who endorse stigmatizing beliefs and predispositions, compared to their peers with more favorable attitudes. Since community level educational and risk reduction programs have demonstrable influences on reducing HIV stigma, it is imperative that the Ghana government’s ongoing anti-stigma campaigns and other HIV prevention programs take cognizance of the role of community stigma in influencing HIV testing.

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Notes

  1. Women who want to be tested are fewer (than those who have ever tested) because women who are HIV-infected (positive) were excluded from the testing intention sample. This is because desire for an HIV test is likely to be considered by those who are not only sexually active, but those who do not yet know their sero-status.

  2. The five indicators are: whether one can reduce risk/chances of getting AIDS by (1) not having sex at all, (2) always using condoms during sex, (3) having one sex partner with no other partner, and whether (4) a healthy person can have AIDS, (5) AIDS is transmitted from mother to child. A varimax factor rotation produced loadings of 0.70–0.90 for these five variables.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Measure DHS for access to Ghana Demographic Health Survey’s unrestricted survey data files (http://www.measuredhs.com/accesssurveys/), which it is authorized to distribute, at no cost, for legitimate academic research.

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  1. Department of Culture and Communication, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Emmanuel F. Koku

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Koku, E.F. Desire for, and Uptake of HIV Tests by Ghanaian Women: The Relevance of Community Level Stigma. J Community Health 36, 289–299 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-010-9310-1

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