Preventing HIV Infections among Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Assessing Knowledge of Transmission and Vulnerabilities

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 17. Sexuality and Sexual Health

Abstract

Young people between the ages of 15 to 24 represent a growing share of people living with HIV worldwide. Although youths in the sub-Saharan Africa are the most affected, in the low-income countries, girls married at young ages typically lack prevention knowledge, unable of safer-sex negotiation, and are often vulnerable to HIV and STI. Informed by the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) framework, in this study, we examine individual and community level factors in HIV knowledge among adolescent girls and young women in Bangladesh using a multilevel analysis. Our particular interest is to identify the adolescent girls and young women who are likely to be vulnerable to HIV and STD due to their limited knowledge or misconceptions of transmission. In our sample of 5253 ever-married young women aged 15-24 years, the mean age was 20.3 years, 77.5% of women were married before 18 years of age, 7.8% had no education, 24.2% were employed in the last 12 months, and 19.2% lived in the poorest households. Surprisingly, adolescent and young girls were more knowledgeable about the risks of non-sexual transmission of HIV than that of sexual transmission. As expected, young girls with greater education and greater household wealth were more knowledgeable with accurate prevention knowledge compared to their counterparts. Young girls living in impoverished communities, and communities with restricted mobility had greater risk of not having accurate knowledge of prevention. Reaching adolescents with comprehensive prevention and transmission knowledge will be a key factor in preventing the AIDS epidemic to occur in the low-income countries.

Authors

• Syeda S. Jesmin, University of Texas-Dallas

• Mosfequr Rahman, University of Rajshahi

• Ami R. Moore, University of North Texas