Impact of Community Face to Face Health Education Intervention on Knowledge and Perception about HIV Services by Men in the Buea Health District

Melvis Bora Samba^1, , Alfred Kongnyu Njamnshi², Dickson Shey Nsagah¹ and Verla Siysi Vincent³

¹Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, South West Region, Cameroon

²Department of Internal Medicine & Specialties (Dermatology and Neurology), Faculty of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde I, Centre Region, Cameroon

³Departments of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, South West Region, Cameroon

Cite this paper:
Melvis Bora Samba, Alfred Kongnyu Njamnshi, Dickson Shey Nsagah and Verla Siysi Vincent. Impact of Community Face to Face Health Education Intervention on Knowledge and Perception about HIV Services by Men in the Buea Health District. American Journal of Epidemiology and Infectious Disease. 2020; 8(2):91-99. doi: 10.12691/ajeid-8-2-5

Abstract

Background: HIV/AIDS eradication strategy rooted in the sustainable development goal 3 aims at achieving global health security by 2030, but the low engagement of men in HIV services is a setback to this goal. Therefore this trial aim to assed the efficacy of face to face weekly health education in community based groups, to improve knowledge and perception about HIV services, especially HIV testing in men 21 years and above in the Buea Health District. Methods: We did a cluster selection of communities and assigned blocks of community men’s groups to either the brief health education intervention condition of 30 to 45 minutes weekly, or a comparison group of community men who are left to receive only standard services. A manual generated randomization district health areas list was used to select community male groups into intervention or control groups. A total of 366 participants either receive health education on HIV Services or not. The primary outcome for this study which was improved knowledge about HIV prevention; HIV Services and positive perception about HIV Services especially testing services was assessed at baseline and at six months. Results: Assessing the knowledge of participants after six months of follow-up, it was observed that the odds of knowing where HIV services are offered in their area was 0.35 times more (CI; 0.21, 0.59) in the intervention arm that in the control arm and was statistically significant at p=0.00. When asked if they knew the types of HIV services that are offered, the odds of knowing the services was 2.58 times (CI: 1.42, 4.70) in the intervention arm compared to the control arm (P=0.02). When examining perception about HIV, both men in the control and intervention arm consider that people should test regularly (92.9% and 93.3% respectively) but agreeing that partners should do and share results together was more in the intervention group than in the control ( 60.4% against 56.5%). Conclusion: community face to face health education on HIV to men in community based groups can be a good strategy to improve correct knowledge and positive perception on HIV Services, especially testing. This contributes to the growing body of evidence on the use of Health Believe Model in giving Health Education. This is a complementary strategy for strengthening HIV testing services which will contribute in achieving the 2030 health security agenda.

Keywords:
HIV health education Men HIV Testing perception randomization Cameroon

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