Factors Associated with Increasing the Risk of HIV and AIDS in Nepal: A Case Study from the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Abstract

Background: The main purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with increasing the risk of HIV and AIDS in the context of Nepal Methods: The whole research was guided by the Pragmatic philosophy and deductive approach was adopted by using the latent function of Structural functional theory of R. K. Merton (Sociologist). 404 respondents were selected from 4 groups: garment factory workers, brick factory workers, transport workers and health workers by using the simple random sampling. Multistage Simple Random Sampling was used to deduct the size of study area on the basis of logical reasoning and simple random sampling was adopted to select the respondents. Under the random sampling, lottery method was used to select the respondents for survey and interview both. Concurrent mix-method was used to collect the quantitative and qualitative data. Survey was done to collect the quantitative data and interview and case study were done to collect the qualitative data. A survey questionnaire was developed on the basis of theory of planned behavior. SPSS and Excel analyzed quantitative data and qualitative data was manually transcribed and analyzed in descriptive way. Results: Level of knowledge varies from 13.6% to 96.8%. Attitude towards PLHIV shows totally negative 2.2% to fully positive. Four out of ten (42.8%) respondents wanted the HIV status to remain secret. Following factors were significant: lack of awareness, negligence, illiteracy, polygamy, human trafficking, stigma and discrimination, conflict, migration, and poverty. Nearly all (94.6%) reported that individual should be responsible followed by government (49%), NGOs (40.1%), communities (39.6%), and private organization (37.1%) to reduce the risk of HIV and AIDS. Conclusions: Individual should be careful and needed to make other people safe if s/he was HIV positive. Similarly, government should create the job opportunity to address the poverty and migration. Keywords: attitude; factors; HIV and AIDS; knowledge; practice; risk.