Knowledge and attitudes of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among nurses in South Africa

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Knowledge and attitudes of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among nurses in South Africa
 
Creator Bailey, Veronique C. Kleinhans, Atholl V. Mokgatle, Mathilda M.
 
Subject Public Health pre-exposure prophylaxis; HIV and/or AIDS; nurses; attitudes; knowledge.
Description Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has shown efficacy and effectiveness in populations who practise high-risk sexual activity. Nurses’ knowledge and positive attitudes enhance PrEP implementation.Aim: This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of and attitudes towards PrEP among nurses in primary health care facilities.Setting: The study was conducted in 10 health facilities that offer comprehensive services in Tshwane, South Africa.Methods: A cross-sectional survey assessed the knowledge of and attitudes towards PrEP among 114 nurses. Univariate, bivariate and logistic regressions were performed to estimate odds ratios and to determine whether age, sex and education had an association with the knowledge and attitudes.Results: Majority of the study sample consisted of female nurses (92.1%), and most respondents (68%) had moderate PrEP knowledge. Logistic regression showed that age and education were not associated with high level of knowledge. Pre-exposure prophylaxis was viewed negatively by 84.5% of the respondents. The odds of positive attitudes towards PrEP were 1.92 times higher among males than females (95% CI 0.54–6.83) and 1.24 times higher among nurses who had bachelor’s degree than diploma holders (95% CI 0.51–3.01).Conclusion: This study found that there is a need to strengthen the dissemination of information about PrEP, and nurses in South Africa require training to improve their knowledge of and attitudes towards PrEP.Contribution: The findings of the study add to the current knowledge base regarding PrEP access in the public healthcare system and it highlights gaps in the training of healthcare providers.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-09-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.4086
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 6 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4086/6488 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4086/6489 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4086/6490 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4086/6491
 
Coverage South Africa; Tshwane 2019-2020 healthcare workers
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Veronique C. Bailey, Atholl V. Kleinhans, Mathilda M. Mokgatle https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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