Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Awareness and knowledge of AIDS among Indian women: evidence from 13 states.

1997; National Institutes of Health; Volume: 7 Suppl; Linguagem: Inglês

Deborah Balk, Surajit Lahiri,

Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

Over 30,000 ever-married women in 13 (out of 25) Indian states where HIV is thought to be highly prevalent-Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and ten other less populous states-were surveyed about their awareness and knowledge of AIDS. Only one in six women had heard of AIDS. Among those, knowledge about transmission and prevention is poor. Multivariate analyses reveal that rural, poorly educated, and poor women are the least likely to be AIDS-aware and if aware, have the poorest understanding of the syndrome. Despite low levels of awareness and knowledge, we find a strong positive association between AIDS awareness and knowledge and condom use.An estimated 1.6-1.75 million people in India are infected with HIV. 32,077 ever-married women in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and West Bengal states were surveyed in the 1992-93 National Family Health Survey about their awareness and knowledge of AIDS. HIV is believed to be highly prevalent in those states. Only 17% of the women had heard of AIDS and among those women, levels of knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention are poor. Multivariate analysis found rural, poorly educated, and poor women to be the least likely to be AIDS-aware, and if aware, to have the poorest understanding of what AIDS is. A strong positive association was nonetheless found between AIDS awareness and knowledge and condom use.