Awareness of HIV/AIDS pandemic among rural farmers in Vandeikya local government area of Benue state, Nigeria

Type Journal Article - Ethno Medicine
Title Awareness of HIV/AIDS pandemic among rural farmers in Vandeikya local government area of Benue state, Nigeria
Author(s)
Volume 4
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2010
Page numbers 183-189
URL http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/S-EM/EM-04-0-000-10-Web/EM-04-3-000-2010-Abst-PDF/EM-04-3-1​83-10-130-Oboh-V-U/EM-4-3-183-10-130-Oboh-V-U-Tt.pdf
Abstract
The paper assessed the awareness level of rural farmers about HIV/AIDS in Vandeikya Local Government
Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Through simple random sampling, one hundred and sixty respondents were interviewed.
Descriptive statistics and chi-square were used to analyze the data collected. Results of the study showed that majority
(90.6%) of the respondents were aware of HIV/AIDS, while radio (71.3%) and friends/neighbors (54.4%) constitute
the major sources of HIV/AIDS information. Despite the high level of awareness about HIV/AIDS, a reasonable
proportion of the respondents ignorantly attributed its cause to poison (35.6%), witchcraft (32.5%), mosquito bite
(27.5%) and eating/bathing/sleeping with infected individuals (20%). Chi-square analysis identified age, literacy level
and frequency of travels of farmers to have had significant dependency relationship with awareness of HIV/AIDS. To
reduce the rate of infection, it is recommended that government and non-governmental organizations should
intensify more HIV/AIDS awareness campaign using radio, peer group, and agricultural extension agents. To be
effective, awareness campaigns should take cognizance of factors like farmers’ age and literacy level.

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