“ROLE OF LITERACY ON POSITIVE PREVENTION AMONG HIV SERO-DISCORDANT COUPLES”

Dr. Manjunatha R 1 and Dr. R K Arya 2 . 1. Associate Professor of Public Health, Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR Bengaluru),Bengaluru. 2. Professor & Head, Department of Community Medicine, Santosh Medical College & Hospital, Ghaziabad. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

There has been a shift in HIV Prevention interventions, from solely working with uninfected persons to work with both infected as well as uninfected persons. 1 Studies have documented that Un-protected sex continues among Serodiscordant couples, 2 which is one of the important ethical and social issues in the community, which has an important role in HIV prevention Programs Serodiscordant couple refers to two people (One HIV Positive and the other HIV Negative) who are in an ongoing sexual relationship in which both partners have tested for HIV and there has been full disclosure of HIV status. 3 The role of both the partners in practicing HIV prevention measures and helping each other contributes to maintain health and the sero-discordant status ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 5 (12), 545-549 546 According to the recent estimations in India, with a Prevalence of 0.27% among adult population (15-49 years) there  are 20.89 Lakh People Living with HIV 4 , which indicates a great opportunity for the prevention, care, and support  programs to mitigate HIV transmissions among serodiscordant couples, enabling them to live a healthier and longer  life. Support from family and spouse is beneficial for a HIV infected individual to adhere to better practices 5 . Even though many studies have studied role of Education and literacy of PLHIV for positive prevention, there is a paucity of information in India, about the role of Spouse's education in better practices related to HIV care; through this study we have made an effort to identify the role of index PLHIV's education & partner's education on positive prevention practices, therefore this study focuses on role of education of both partners who are in serodiscordant relationships on HIV positive prevention practices

Material and Methods:-
The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Board of Santosh Medical College and Hospital, Ghaziabad and Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS), Bengaluru. A cross sectional study was conducted between June 2014 to April 2017. A sample size of 277 was estimated for the study based on the available published literature 6 . Since this study was focusing on a selected sub group of PLHIV population, in order to have sufficient sample frame, participants were selected from 03 sites of Karnataka namely Mysuru, Haveri and Chitradurga PLHIV who were in serodiscordant relationships and who were registered in public sector hospitals for Anti Retro Viral Therapy among these 03 sites were included for the study. Using a simple random technique index PLHIVs of serodiscordant status were enrolled for the study and informed consent was obtained in the local language Kannada, Pretested structured interview schedule was used for data collection.
Data analysis was done using SPSS software applying appropriate statistical tests of significance. Data was analyzed by calculating mean, standard deviations, and proportions. The tests of significance applied were Chi-square test. A P-value of 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant Level of Education and condom use with spouse:-PLHIV having higher education level reported higher level of condom use (82.4%) when compared to PLHIV with no formal education (71.08%); and this difference was found to be statistically significant (P <0.05). There was no significant relation when we compared spousal education with condom use.

Sexually transmitted infections:-Knowledge on STI:-
Participants were asked to name Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) or any symptoms related to STIs, and their knowledge was assessed on a scale   548 was found to be associated with higher rates of condom use 7,8,9 Studies in general population and general PLHIV population have found that higher educational levels of partner education 10 or non-spousal partner 11 are associated with higher levels of condom use and lower chances of occurrence of STIs A study from Nigeria reported that educational status influences knowledge related to STI 12 ; consistent findings were found in our study where better educated PLHIV had higher knowledge about STIs and had experienced lower incidence of STIs compared to others reinforcing the fact that Knowledge on Prevention and treatment of STIs and opportunistic infections (OIs) helps PLHIV to avoid transmission of infections to others 13 .
Opportunistic infections:-20.1% of participants stated that they have experienced at least one episode of opportunistic infection in last one year (21.7% of men & 12% of women).