Keywords: HIV/AIDS awareness, Women, Mixed model, Bangladesh
Background: South-Asian countries are considered to be a potential breeding ground for HIV epidemic. Although the prevalence of this incurable disease is low in Bangladesh, women still have been identified as the more vulnerable group. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge about HIV/AIDS: its trends and associated factors among the women in Bangladesh.
Methods: We analysed the nationally representative Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHSs) data: 2007, 2011, and 2014. These data were clustered in nature due to the sampling design and the generalized mixed effects model is appropriate to examine the association between the outcome and the explanatory variables by adjusting for the cluster effect.
Results: Overall, women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS has been decreasing over the years. Education plays the leading role and secondary-higher educated women are 6.6 times more likely to have HIV/AIDS knowledge. The likelihood of knowledge is higher among the women who had media exposure (OR: 1.6) and knowledge of family planning (OR: 2.3). A rural-urban gap is noticed in women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS and significant improvement has been observed among the rural and media exposed women. Results reveal that age, region, religion, socio-economic status, education, contraceptive use have significant (p < 0.01) effects on women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS.
Conclusion: This study recommends to emphasis more on women's education, media exposure, and family planning knowledge in strengthening women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS. In addition, residence specific programs regarding HIV/AIDS awareness also need to be prioritized.