Perception of risk of HIV/AIDS Infection and sexual behaviour among Women in the North-West Province, South Africa

Abstract

The association between the perception the of risk of HIV infection and sexual behaviour remains poorly understood, although the perception of risk is considered to be the first stage towards behavioural change, from risk taking to safer behaviour. Using data from a 1998 South Africa demographic and health survey, the knowledge, the perception of the risk of HIV/AIDS and the sexual behaviour of women in the North West province were analysed. Nominal regression models were implemented to examine the strength of the association between the perception of the risk of HIV/AIDS and explanatory variables. The findings indicate that knowledge is universal and women in the North West are well informed about mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Married and older the women are less likely to use condoms. More than 88% of the women believe that an HIV/AIDS status should be reported to the patients themselves and their partners. Women's perceptions were examined about whether a healthy person can have HIV/AIDS? About 30% of the women said that a healthy person could have HIV/AIDS, but 53% said that a healthy person could not have HIV/AIDS. With regard to the association between the perception of the risk of HIV/AIDS and certain explanatory variables (place of residence; education; ethnicity; age at first sexual intercourse; type of sexual partners; marital status; AIDS information from newspapers, friends and partners and knowing someone with HIV/AIDS), it is shown that they have a strong association.