Abstract
The study was designed to assess the
adolescents attitude and perceptions towards HIV/AIDs in Nsit Ibom Local
Government Area. In order to effectively execute the study, three research
questions were formulated. A descriptive study was used for the survey. The
sample size for the study consisted of one hundred and sixty-five students who
were drawn from one out of nine public secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local
Government Area. A simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the
respondents. Data were collected using the questionnaire and analyzed using
frequency tables and simple percentages. The results of the study revealed that
(95.8%) of the students had a good level of knowledge about HIV/AIDs and
(87.9%) had positive attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDs. The study
also revealed that, great misconceptions still exists among the adolescents
population. However, based on the findings from the study, it was recommended
that, policy meters school authorities and other stakeholders in educational
sector should come forward with a well design enlightenment campaigns on
HIV/AIDs in schools and communities for the benefit of the adolescents in Nsit
Ibom Local Government Area and Nigeria at large, as such measures will help the
adolescents to develop proper understanding of what HIV/AIDs is all about, how
it is transmitted and ways of preventing it.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study
Adolescence is a period of life with specific health and
developmental needs and rights. It is a time to develop knowledge, attitude and
skills, learning emotions, relationships and acquire abilities that will be
important for enjoying the adolescent years and assuming adult roles. The World
Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescents as those people between 10 and 19
years of age. This age range falls within the World Health Organization (WHO,
2006) definition of young people in December 4, 2014, which refers to
individuals between ages 10 and 24 years. The great majority of adolescents are
therefore, included in the age-based definition of a child, adopted by the
World Health Organization convention on the right of a child as a person under
the age of 18 years.
According to 2013 reports from Nigerian Demographic Health
Survey (NDHS), there are over 1.8 billion adolescents and young people (AYP) in
the world with 90% living in developing countries where they tend to make-up
one third of the population. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Nigeria, the
population of adolescents continues to grow substantially. The adolescents are
an important target population of every society, in that sooner or later they
will transit into the workforce of the nation (Eze, 2005). Adolescents are also
seen as the window of hope because they have great potentials for positive
change of attitude and behaviour. But these adolescents are so full of curiosity
on certain lifestyles including sex and experimentation often exposed them
early to the risk of several health problems including HIV/AIDS infection. The
majority of adolescents living with HIV/AIDS are in a low and middle income
countries such as Nigeria. The spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents and young
persons is a major public health concern in Nigeria. Even though the infection
affects all the ages of the population, the epidemic among adolescents is the
fastest growing, partly because of adolescents vulnerability and low use of
preventive services, (UN AIDs, 2013).
Focusing on adolescents and young people is likely to be the
most effective approach to combating the HIV/AIDs epidemic, particularly in
high prevalence countries or localities. HIV as defined by the World Health
Organization (WHO, 2006), stands for Human Immune Deficiency virus in that it
affects only human beings. HIV attacks the human immune system, the body’s
defence against invading disease. HIV damages the human immune system by systematically
destroying an important type of white blood cells called CD4 cells
or T4 cells. HIV is the virus that causes AIDs. On the other hand,
AIDs means Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in that, scientist believed that
the first human that was diagnosed with the signs and symptoms of the disease
was not born with it, but rather acquired or contacted it from the animals.
AIDs arises as the outcome of damage to the immune system caused by HIV. When
the body is severely weakened by HIV, it can be attacked by a number of serious
opportunistic disease condition like tuberculosis (TB). AIDs exerts a heavy
toll on its victims and it compromised people’s way of life and dramatically
increased their risk of death.
An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative
evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, ideas or anything in our
environment. Attitude almost involves a certain amount of bias or prejudging on
our part. In a sense, attitudes are perceptions that involve emotional feelings
or biases and they predispose us to act in a certain way. Hornby (2007),
identified attitudes as the way that one thinks and feels about somebody,
something, the way one behaves towards somebody or something that shows how one
thinks or feels.
The word perception is derived from a Latin word percipio
which means conscious understanding of something. In a sense, perception simply
means organization, identification and interpretation of sensory information in
order to represent and understand the environment. It is a known fact that,
many adolescents in Nigeria still do not believe that HIV/AIDs is a reality.
They have wrong perceptions about HIV/AIDs varying from the assumptions and
misconceptions that, one act of sexual intercourse with an infected person
cannot lead to infection. That they can recognized every HIV/AIDs positive
persons by their physical appearance. That HIV/AIDs is a threat used by adults
to deter adolescents and young people from fornication and immorality. That
HIV/AIDs cannot be adequately and completely avoided because of its numerous
ways of transmission. That HIV/AIDs is a strategic fiction which the white-men
have fabricated against the developing countries in particular, so that they
can sell their condoms.
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However, although most adolescents have knowledge about
HIV/AIDs, but due to the fact that they are sexually active especially of
school age and in an environment free from their parents restrictions, they
still indulge in pre-marital sexual activity at any given opportunity (Harley,
2008). This increasing rate of adolescents involvement in sexual activity has
given a great concern to all Nigerians especially in this era of increasing
number of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDs. Inspite of this
increasing concern for the dreaded disease HIV/AIDs, the knowledge, attitude
and perception of how the disease is transmitted and prevented has continued to
be fraught with speculation particularly in Nigeria. Hence, this research work
is focusing on adolescents attitude and perception towards HIV/AIDs.
It is imperative therefore that, maximum care and massive
re-orientation should be given to the adolescents in any society concerning
challenging health issues such as HIV AIDs scourge, so as to keep them in good
health for life continuity and optimum productive output necessary for
development and growth.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
The disease HIV/AIDS, unlike most other diseases is posing a
serious challenge particularly to many localities of the developing countries
including Nigeria and even to the world in general. A lot of effort have been
made about the HIV/AIDs disease by government and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in terms of prevention and finding its cure.
In recent times, it has been observed that, in most
localities in Nigeria, adolescents and young person population are
disproportionally affected by HIV/AIDs transmission. Hence, this current status
of HIV/AIDs infection rates among adolescents and young persons in Nsit Ibom
Local Government Area prompted this study in Afaha Offiong Village, Nsit Ibom
Local Government Area.
1.3 Purpose
or Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to assess the
attitude and perception of HIV/AIDs
among adolescents in Afaha Offiong Village, Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of
Akwa Ibom State.
The specific objectives are as follows:
i. To
ascertain the adolescents level of knowledge about HIV/AIDs disease in Afaha Offiong Village, Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
ii. To
assess the attitudes of adolescents about HIV/AIDs in Afaha Offiong Village,
Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
iii. To
assess the perceptions of adolescents about HIV/AIDs in Afaha Offiong Village,
Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
1.4 Research
Questions
This study is guided by
the following research questions:
i. Do
adolescents in Afaha Offiong Village, Nsit Ibom Local Government have knowledge
of the HIV/AIDs disease?
ii. What
are the attitudes of adolescents about HIV/AIDs disease in Afaha Offiong Village,
Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?
iii. What
are the perceptions of adolescents about HIV/AIDs in Afaha Offiong Village,
Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?
1.5 Significance
of the Study
i. The
information gathered from this study will help to exposed the level of
knowledge of adolescents in Afaha Offiong Village, Nsit Ibom Local Government
Area about HIV/AIDs, as well as their poor attitudes and wrong perceptions
towards HIV/AIDs presentation.
ii. The
result of this study will be of tremendous benefits to the adolescents, the
youths, parents, future generations and the society at large, as it will give
them adequate information on HIV/AIDs.
iii. The
result and findings from this study will benefit the adolescents as it will
help to change and advance their attitudes and perceptions to the reality that
HIV/Aids is in existence and is spreading.
iv. The
result of this study will be beneficial to schools, the government,
non-governmental organizations (NGOS), as it will help to suggest and recommend
appropriate HIV/AIDs reduction strategies and the way forward.
v. The
result of this study will help other researchers who may want to present study
on similar review.
1.6 Delimitation
or Scope of the Study
i. The
study is delimited to Afaha Offiong village, the headquarters settlement of
Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
ii. The
study is delimited to one hundred and sixty-five (165) in-school adolescent of
aged (10-19years), in Afaha Offiong village, Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
iii. The
study is delimited to in-school adolescent’s attitudes and perceptions towards
HIV/AIDs in Afaha Offiong village, in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
1.7 Operational
Definition of Terms
Adolescence: This is a period or stage
of life when an individual gradually moves from childhood to adulthood.
Attitude: This is a person’s tendency
to react towards another person, object, something in a favourable or
unfavourable manner.
Perception: This can simply be referred
to as they way in which something is regarded, understood or interpreted.
HIV: HIV stands for Human Immune
Deficiency Virus.
AIDs: AIDs means Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome of disease which results from a specific weakness of the
immune system.
Health: According to World Health
Organization (WHO), health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely the absence of a disease or
infirmity.
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