Marital Status and HIV Prevalence in Nigeria: Implications for Effective Prevention Programmes for Women

Samson B. Adebayo, Richard I. Olukolade, Omokhudu Idogho, Jennifer Anyanti, Augustine Ankomah

.
The Society for Family Health, Abuja, Nigeria; 2National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Abuja, Nigeria.

DOI: 10.4236/aid.2013.33031                

Abstract

Objective: Until recently, HIV prevalence has been based on estimates from antenatal sentinel surveys which have been found to overestimate HIV prevalence among the general population. Multiple studies have shown women to be disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS epidemic. Design: Data for this study were based on the first Nigerian population household-based HIV biomarker survey of 2007, which used a multi-stage probability sampling technique. Methods: Respondents were selected through probability sampling (male age 15 - 64 years and female 15 - 49 years). This paper, therefore, examined the correlates of marital status and HIV prevalence among women in Nigeria. Results: A descriptive analysis of the data showed that HIV prevalence of women that were formerly married: divorced, separated or widowed were more than double that of those who were currently married/cohabiting with a sexual partner; and more than three times those that were never married. Bivariate and multivariate levels of analysis were explored in this paper. At bivariate level, findings showed a significant difference in HIV prevalence among women according to their marital status (p < 0.0001), educational attainment (p = 0.004) and geo-political zones (p = 0.003). Respondents that were formerly married were 5.6 times as likely to be infected with HIV compared with those who had never married (OR = 5.6, p < 0.0001) while HIV prevalence increased with higher educational attainment. Conclusion: In view of these findings, HIV programmers should design interventions that will improve economic empowerment as well as social security for women that were formerly married. In addition, gender mainstreaming in the ongoing HIV and AIDS preventive efforts should be strengthened and scaled-up.

Keywords

Early Marriage; Sexual Initiation; HIV Prevalence; Marital Status; Formerly Married

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	J. Mann, “AIDS,” World Health Forum, Vol. 8, 1997, pp. 361-370.
[2]	UNAIDS, “Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic,” 2010. http://www.unaids.org/globalreport/documents/20101123_GlobalReport_full_en.pdf
[3]	Federal Ministry of Health, “Technical Report of National HIV Sero-Prevalence Sentinel Survey among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Nigeria,” Department of Public Health, National AIDS/STI Control Programme, 2011.
[4]	UNAIDS Fact Sheet, “Women, Girls, and HIV Overview,” 2010. http://www.unaids.org
[5]	B. E. Wodi, “Gender Issues in HIV/AIDS Epidemiology in Sub-Saharan Africa,” 2005. http://appweb.cortland.edu/ojs/index.php/Wagagu/article/viewArticle/245/ 454.
[6]	World Health Organization, “AIDS Epidemic Update: Special Report on HIV/AIDS,” 2006. http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/2006_EpiUpdate_en.pdf
[7]	S. Maman, J. Campbell, M. D. Sweat and A. C. Gleen, “The Intersections of HIV and Violence: Directions for Future Research and Interventions,” Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 50, No. 4, 2000, pp. 459-478. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00270-1
[8]	UNAIDS and WHO, “AIDS Epidemic Update 2009,” 2009. http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/jc1700_epi_update_2009_en.pdf
[9]	World Health Organization, “Gender and HIV/AIDS,” 2003. http://www.who.org
[10]	L. Finley, “The AIDS Pandemic,” (2006). Retrieved from: http://the-aids-pandemic.blogspot.com/2006/11/women-and-hivaids-in-africa.html
[11]	World Health Organization, “Women and Health: Today’s Evidence, Tomorrow’s Agenda,” World Health Organization, Geneva, 2009.
[12]	UNAIDS and WHO, “AIDS Epidemic Update 2007,” 2007. http://data.unaids.org/pub/epislides/2007/2007_epiupdate_en.pdf
[13]	A. Abdulazeez, E. Alo and R. Naphthali, “Concurrent Infection of HIV-1 and HIV-2 Serotypes in Adamawa State Nigeria,” World Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2008, pp. 15-18.
[14]	Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “HIV Transmission,” 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/qa/transmission.htm
[15]	H. Neondo, “HIV Falling but High among Divorced, Widowed,” Africa Science News Service, 2009. http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1811
[16]	National Bureau of Statistics [Tanzania] and ORC Macro, “Tanzania Demographic Health and Survey 2004-2005,” 2005. http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR173/FR173-TZ04-05.pdf
[17]	I. Kasamba, D. Maher, S. Biraro, H. Grosskurth and J. Todd, “How HIV Prevalence, Number of Sexual Partners and Marital Status Are Related in Rural Uganda,” XXVI IUSSP International Population Conference, Marrakech, 2009. http://iussp2009.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=92459
[18]	J. T. Boerma, M. Urassa, S. Nnko, J. Ng’weshemi, R. Isingo, B. Zaba and G. Mwaluko, “Sociodemographic Context of the AIDS Epidemic in a Rural Area of Tanzania with a Focus on People’s Mobility and Marriage,” Sexually Transmitted Infections, Vol. 78, No. S1, 2002, pp. S97-S105. doi:10.1136/sti.78.suppl_1.i97
[19]	D. W. Hosmer and S. Lemeshow, “Applied Logistic Regression,” John Wiley, New York, 1989.