HIV testing among youths in a Nigerian local population

Voluntary HIV testing enables infected individuals to access treatment early and adopt safe sexual practices. Young people aged 15-29 have the highest prevalence of HIV in Nigeria. Yet most of them remain untested.

To determine the attitude of youths to voluntary HIV testing and examine various factors that can influence it.

Multi-staged sampling method was used to choose 400 youths aged between 15 and 29yrs in Sagamu and data was collected from them. Three hundred and ninety three (393) well filled questionnaires were analysed.

Male to female ratio was 1:1 (196 males, 197 females). Of the 393 respondents, 309 (78.6%) had a positive attitude to HIV testing. Seventy-eight (19.8%) indicated that they were aware of Voluntary Counselling and Confidential Testing. Forty-five respondents (11.5%) had been tested for HIV before. Of the 45 previously tested respondents, 10 (22.2%) went for voluntary HIV test. The major reasons given for not having been tested were: 166 (47.6%) believed that they couldn't have HIV, 60 (17.4%) indicated it had not occurred to them to be tested, 38 (10.9%) had no time while 27 (7.9%) feared the stigma attached to HIV. Of the 348 who had never been tested, 237 (68.2%) would like to do it but if it were free, 278 (79.9%) of the respondents would do it. Single youths, those with at least secondary school education and youths who knew someone with HIV were more likely to desire an HIV test (p<0.05). Youths who were willing to care for people living with HIV/AIDS were more willing to be tested (70.5%) compared with those who were not (65.0%).

Majority of the youths have a positive attitude to HIV testing.