Assessment of Awareness of Rural Women towards HIV/AIDS in Ernakulam District, Kerala

Background: AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate among women. UNAIDS figures state that 0.8% of the total adult population (15-45yrs) in India is living with HIV/AIDS, of which 1.5% million are women. So the assessment of rural women towards HIV/AIDS is important.

Objective: The study was undertaken to assess the knowledge level of rural women in Kerala regarding various modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study, a sample of 400 rural women of 15-45 years were randomly selected from Choornikara Panchayath area in Ernakulam District by applying simple random sampling method. Structured Interview schedule was used for collecting the data.

Result: 17% of women knew all modes of disease transmission and 27% of them knew only two modes. 52% responded sex is the common way of transmission and 19% said that blood is the effective way of transmission.

Conclusion: Sexual subordination due to socio-economic factors lack women of their power to negotiate against unsafe sex and the awareness is the only tool to prevent them from the enormity of the problem.