Attitudes of healthcare workers towards HIV patients in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the major issues in public health, and the sub-Saharan part of Africa has been greatly affected by the disease. Worldwide, Nigeria has the second highest number of infections reported each year, and approximately 3.7 percent of the population live with HIV.
As problems related to HIV/AIDS most times cause emotional problems like anxiety, fear, depression and withdrawal from society, the workers’ behaviour to these issues could point out their level of readiness in caring for people living with AIDS.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitude of healthcare workers towards HIV/AIDS patients in Nigeria.
Cross-sectional survey was carried out among 102 healthcare workers in Lagos state Nigeria in July 2015. Anonymous questionnaires were handed out to them with their permission for collection of data to analyse how age, location, job description, sex, department and duration of work in a health facility influence their attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients.
The questionnaire also included ideas of what should be done to prevent discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients by health care workers.
The results were analysed using univariate logistic regression methods. We found out that the healthcare workers willingness to give confidential information to family members significantly depended on their age. The older healthcare workers were more likely to give out such information than the rest (Odds ratio=1.094; p-value=0.02). Other factors were not influenced significantly by the attitude of the healthcare workers.
Considering the fact that healthcare workers are expected to give care and appropriate information on health related issues to patients, their family members, and also to the general public, it is very important that they have reliable and detailed understanding of the disease in question, proper management of patients and also appropriate attitude.