Determinants of Discriminatory Attitudes Towards People Living with HIV/AIDS among Women of Reproductive Age in Zambia: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract: Background: HIV/AIDS has emerged as one of the most serious public health concerns across the world, especially in low-income countries. About 79.3 million people have been infected with HIV and more than 36 million have died from AIDS-related diseases. This study aimed to explore the determinants of discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS among women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in Zambia. Method: A cross-sectional design was performed among 13,119 Zambian women of reproductive age (15-19 years). A secondary analysis was conducted based on Zambian Demographic and Health Survey 2018. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to investigate the determinants of discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHIV, using SPSS version 27.0.1.0. Results: The results revealed that 30.3% of women expressed negative against PLWHIV. Logistic regression showed that women who had minimal knowledge about HIV/AIDS [OR=4.69; 95% CI: 4.08-5.39] had 4.7 higher odds of expressing discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHIV. Non-educated women [OR=2.66; 95% CI: 1.98-3.56] had 2.6 higher odds of having discriminatory attitudes toward PLWHIV. Women belonging to the poorest quintile [OR=1.98; 95% CI: 1.73-2.28] had 2 times higher odds of expressing discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHIV. Conclusion: Knowledge of HIV/AIDS, education level and socioeconomic status had an inverse association with expressing discriminatory attitudes towards PLWHIV. The finding suggests that to address the awareness of HIV prevention methods and eliminating the misconceptions about HIV transmission among Zambian women.