Abstract

In Nigeria less than 10% of people infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus are aware of their HIV status. This poses a great challenge to effective control of the spread of the disease. The study assessed the uptake of Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) among adults of reproductive age in Osun State, Nigeria. Respondents from three Local Government Areas of Osun State were selected for the study which employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. An interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 720 male and female respondents of reproductive age group. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 15 and the results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that only 17.9% of the respondents had ever accessed VCT. The commonest reasons reported for accessing it were the desire to know their HIV status (36.4%), doctor’s request sequel to being sick (24.8%) and ante-natal care screening (22.5%), among others. Respondents with tertiary education were more likely to access VCT. Eighty two percent (82%) of the respondents had never accessed VCT before. The study concluded that adults of reproductive age in Osun State had poor uptake of VCT and those with tertiary education were more likely to access the services. Continuous media education, social marketing of VCT, building more testing sites in rural areas and scaling-up of the services in routine medical and obstetric care, can help to improve the uptake.

Keywords:

Adults of reproductive age, assessment of VCT, HIV status, HIV/AIDS, VCT uptake, voluntary counselling,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.