Acceptability of male circumcision in HIV prevention among the males aged 18 years and above in Mufulira Urban

Abstract

HIV/AIDS is a major public health problem, not only in Zambia but the world as a whole. Millions of new infections are still being reported especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa. This has resulted in a number of interventions being put in place to halt the spread of the HIV infection. Male circumcision is one of the new interventions that is being considered in the prevention of HIV transmission from infected females to males.The overall aim of this study was to determine the acceptability of male circumcision in HIV prevention among the males aged 18 years and above in Mufulira urban. The specific objectives were: (1)To determine the proportion of uncircumcised respondents willing to undergo male circumcision. (2)To determine the reasons why circumcised respondents got circumcised. (3)To identify socio-cultural factors associated with the uptake of male circumcision. (4)To determine association between knowledge on male circumcision and willingness to undergo male circumcision. A cross sectional study was conducted in Mufulira urban in December, 2009 by the research team. The study comprised face to face interviews of 407 respondents using a structured interview schedule and two FGDs involving males aged 18 to 30 years and those aged 31 years and above respectively. Respondents were drawn from one high density area with a high HIV prevalence (Kantanshi Township). The Township was purposively selected. The households were systematically selected. One randomly selected male aged 18 years or older was interviewed from each selected household using a structured interview schedule. Individuals for the FGDs were purposively selected to ensure that groups were homogeneous.The confidence interval was set at 95%, and a result yielding a P value of 5% or less was considered to be statistically significant. The Chi Square test was used to compare the proportions. A full report of the FGDs was written using participants own words. The main ideas and key statements that were expressed were listed down. Data was coded and responses from the two FGDs were compared and a summary was written in narrative form.The study findings revealed that only 18.7% of the respondents were circumcised. The Study further revealed that 60.7% of the respondents expressed willingness to be circumcised if male circumcision could offer partial protection against acquisition of HIV/AIDS. 69% of the respondents had high knowledge on male circumcision. There was no association between knowledge and willingness to undergo male circumcision.The only significant association was between improvement in genital hygiene and willingness to undergo male circumcision.The results showed that though the level of male circumcision was low in Mufulira Urban, the procedure was perceived positively.