Title:
SEX AND AGE OF STAFF AS PREDICTORS OF STIGMATIZATION OF HIV/AIDS PATIENTS ATTENDING TEACHING HOSPITALS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING

Authors:
AKPEDE, Mabel Omonigho, Ph.D, Nigeria

Abstract:
The study examined staff sex and age as predictors of stigmatization of people or HIV/AIDs patients attending teaching hospitals in Edo State, Nigeria. The design for the study is correlational. The population of the study covered the 3224 staff of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Irrua, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and Central Hospital Benin city, Edo State. A sample of 1612 staff was used for the study. The stratified random sampling technique was used to draw a sample. 50 percent of the staff was drawn as sample from each of the teaching hospitals. One scale was used in the collection of data - HIV/AIDS Stigma scale). The instrument was adjudged reliable for use in the main study because a Cronbach alpha of 0.73 was obtained for HIV/AIDS Stigma scale. The hypotheses were tested using Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) at .05 level of significance. The result showed that personal factors of sex and age were predictors of stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS of staff in teaching hospitals in Edo State, Nigeria (p<0.05). The direction of effect show that female staff had approximately 2.5 times (CI = 1.973 to 3.054) higher likelihood of stigmatizing HIV/AIDs patients attending teaching hospitals than their male contemporaries. Young staff had approximately 5.23 times (CI = .478 to 313) higher likelihood of stigmatizing HIV/AIDs patients attending teaching hospitals than older staff. It was recommended that young staff of teaching hospitals (less than 35years) should be provided with on-the-job training to assist them cope with possible anxieties or fears that they could be incubating conscious or unconscious fear of contracting HIVin the course of discharging their duties r attending to HIV/AIDs patients attending teaching hospitals for treatment.