2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo (Oct. 31 - Nov. 4, 2015): “The Cango Lyec Project - Healing the Elephant-”: Risk Factors for HIV infection among young Men and Women (<25 years) in Post Conflict Northern Uganda
“The Cango Lyec Project - Healing the Elephant-”: Risk Factors for HIV infection among young Men and Women (<25 years) in Post Conflict Northern Uganda
John Paul Ekwaru, PhD, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Patricia M. Spittal, PhD, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Background: War related violence in Northern Uganda has been well documented and may be accelerating HIV spread. We studied the differences in prevalence and risk factors for HIV infection between young (<25 years) men and women in this post conflict region.
Methods: The “Cango Lyec Project” is a prospective cohort study involving Gulu, Amuru and Nwoya districts in Northern Uganda. We randomly selected study communities and conducted a house-to-house census that mapped and enumerated the entire population All residents aged 13-59 living in the selected communities between October 2011-July 2012 who consented to participate in the survey and to HIV testing were recruited and completed trauma, depression and sociodemographic-behavioural surveys conducted in Luo.
Results: Of 1192 young participants, 54.1% were females; 12.1% had been abducted by the rebels and 12.7% of the women were raped while in captivity. Reported median age at sex debut was 16 years among women compared to 15 years among men and 7.76% of the men were circumcised. HIV prevalence was 7.1%[5.1, 9.1] in women vs. 2.1%[0.9, 3.3] in men (p<0.001). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was observed in 8.1%[6.0, 10.2]of women compared to 7.5%[5.3, 9.7]of men(p=0.716) and depression was reported by 12.7%[10.1, 15.3] of women and 7.7%[5.5, 9.9]of men (p=0.005). HIV infection among young people was associated with female gender (AOR: 2.33 [1.12,4.86]), female headed household (AOR: 3.65[1.70,7.84)]), active syphilis(AOR: 5.70[2.05,15.81]) and age (AOR: 1.26[1.12,1.42]) for each additional year of age).
Conclusions: Young Women are disproportionately impacted by HIV infection in this post conflict-affected population.
Describe extreme vulnerability to HIV among conflict affected populations.
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am one of the co-investigators in the Cango Lyec Project, and have been a part of the data cleaning, analysis, and collection. I am familiar with the specific nature of this presentation. I am currently working in partnership with the Cango Lyec Project on an NIH funded study introducing qualitative measures in a grounded theory approach to better understand the cultural perspectives underlying the results from the quantitative data.