'PLWHA' Relatives Perception and Their Views towards HIV/AIDS in South India (original) (raw)

Background: Family members are of particular importance in supporting the People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). We intended to assess the knowledge, attitude, perception, misconceptions of PLWHA relative views (KAP-MV) regarding HIV/AIDS in South India. Methodology: A cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire containing 50 items was distributed among the PLWHA relatives visitingAntiretroviral therapy (ART) centre in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) tertiary care government hospital, Warangal city from April-July 2014. A structured open-ended questionnaire concerning 4 variables, 1) sociodemographic details (9 items); 2) knowledge, attitude, misconceptions about HIV/AIDS (5 items of each); 3) perception towards the possible causes of HIV infections (14 items) and 4) respondents views to prevent HIV infections (12 questions) was administered during the study period. Participants indicated categorically [Yes=2 points, No=0 points] were summed to a nominal measure of all items yielding a range of value from 0-82. Using these, score the level of KAP-MV was categorized into poor (0-33), average (34-50) and good (51-82). Pearson's chi-square, analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and Spearman's Correlation test was conducted on 41 variables towards KAP-MV with PLWHA sociodemographic characters using SPSS version 21. A p-value of p<0.01 was considered statistically significant. Results: Although 515 questionnaires were returned, representing 96% of those distributed and 58.4% of them were students. On the scale of knowledge the subjects had a mean score of 8±1.76, Attitude-5.80±3.47, Perception-23.44±4.19, Misconceptions-8.03±2.19 and respondent views-8.0±3.98. Total (41 items) subjects mean score of 66.28±9.18 (81%). High score indicated a positive KAP-V and less misconception towards HIV/AIDS. Overall, level of education, marital status, religious beliefs, and employment status has significant (P=0.000) association with KAP-MV. Knowledge was significantly correlated with attitude (r= -0.15, p<0.001), perception (0.39;0.000), and respondent views (0.381;0.000);PLWHA relatives with less knowledge score had more negative attitude, perception and views towards preventing HIV infections. Further, misconceptions were highly associated with PLWHA relatives with negative views (0.337;0.000) and perceptions (0.201;0.000). Conclusion: PLWHA relatives had shown satisfactory levels (81%) of KAP-MV toward HIV/AIDS in high prevalent Warangal district, South India. To increase the awareness and decrease the negative views PLWHA families (as well as general population) should be more actively involved and instructed about all aspects of AIDS. Keywords:PLWHA, AIDS, HIV, Family Care, Attitude, South India