Assessing the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and high HIV risk behaviours among male and female adolescents: A cross sectional study in Balaka district.
Abstract
Executive Summary
Type of research study
This will be a Cross Sectional Study to done in Balaka district.
The problem
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains a burden in Malawi with high incidences among adolescents (0.23% per year). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refers to a range of events (such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse, bullying, etc) that children can experience early in their life that leads to stress and can result in trauma and unhealthy behaviours such as sexual immorality, indulging in substance abuse. There are a number of behaviours that exposes one to high HIV risks. Some of the high HIV risk behaviours include having multiple sexual partners and infrequent condom use. This study seeks to assess the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and high HIV risk behaviours specifically having multiple sexual partners and
infrequent condom use among adolescents that may lead to increased HIV incidences in Balaka district.
Objectives
This study will assess the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and high HIV risk behaviours specifically having multiple sexual partners and infrequent condom use among female and male adolescents’ in Balaka district.
Methodology
This will be a cross sectional study involving a total of 314 adolescents aged between 10-18 years who were interviewed in the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) study during the 2017/2018 data collection wave. The parent MLSFH study, collected data for a number of variables among which some will be used in this study. These variables include: Age, gender, tribe, religion, caregiver, caregiver change over time, school attendance, household size, family income status, sexual activities, infrequent condom use and exposure to different types of ACEs.
This study will analyse secondary data from Balaka district under the parent MLSFH study which was collected in 2017/2018 data collection wave for adolescents’ cohort. Logistic regression analysis will be performed using STATA v14 to assess the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and HIV risk behaviours (multiple sexual partners and infrequent condom use) among male and female adolescents.
Description
Keywords
HIV/AIDS