Psycho-Cultural Variables Predicting Attitude of Students' Towards HIV Counselling and Testing in Selected Tertiary Institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to assess attitude of young people (n=287, mean=20.5 years) towards testing for HIV/AIDS. The participants completed a standard socio-demographic questionnaire, indicating sexual behaviour, cultural beliefs and practices, attitude to HCT, and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Descriptive and inferential statistics at 0.05 alpha level were used to analyze the data. The study indicates that most participants have poor knowledge of HCT centres in their communities, but had a fairly high knowledge level of HIV. The findings of this study include that there is a significant difference in the disposition to HCT between respondents who have experienced sexual intercourse and those who have not (t = 3.866, df = 285: p<0.05) and between male and female respondents (t = 4.775, df = 285; p< 0.05). The study also shows that knowledge of HIV/AIDS was the strongest predictor of attitude of young people towards HCT (β = 0.547; t = 3.458 p<0.05), closely followed by cultural practices (β = 0.324; t =  2.740 p<0.05) while sexual behaviour was not a strong predictor (β = 0.041; t = 0.543 p>0.05). The present study challenged the adequacy of reproductive health knowledge available to Nigerian students and based on the findings in this study, it was recommended that young people should be sufficiently enlightened and counselled on the imperative of HIV counselling and testing.

Keywords: HIV counselling and testing (HCT), young people, attitude, knowledge of HIV/AIDS