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The perception of taxi drivers in southern part of Saint Lucia, West Indies towards HIV/AIDS and condom use
Retrovirology volume 7, Article number: P144 (2010)
Background
The prevention and control of HIV/AIDS remains a challenge to health care providers in the Caribbean. Despite the threat posed by the rapid spread of the virus, many subgroups of the populations continue to engage in risky sexual behaviours. The taxi drivers belong to an occupation whose lifestyles while on duty have made them to be identified as highly susceptible. This study was conducted with the aim of understanding HIV-related knowledge and sexual behaviour with respect to condom use. The prevention and control of HIV/AIDS remains a challenge to health care providers in the Caribbean. Despite the threat posed by the rapid spread of the virus, many subgroups of the populations continue to engage in risky sexual behaviours. The taxi drivers belong to an occupation whose lifestyles while on duty have made them to be identified as highly susceptible. This study was conducted with the aim of understanding HIV-related knowledge and sexual behaviour with respect to condom use.
Methods
This study was conducted in May 2009 among male taxi drivers in the Hewanorra International Airport, St Lucia. This was a descriptive study using a semi-structured close-ended questionnaire. The data were collated and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social sciences 13.0 (SPSS 13.0) data base. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.01.
Results
Eighty questionnaires were distributed, sixty were correctly filled, showing a response rate of 75%. The knowledge of HIV/AIDS was high among the drivers (78.3%). More than 50% of the respondents do not use condom consistently for sexual intercourse.
Discussion
Some misconceptions about the mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS were observed. Also constraints to the affordability and availability were identified. Behaviour modification programmes should be taught periodically to this subgroup. The government should endeavour to make condoms more accessible especially in public places.
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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Orisatoki, R., Oguntibeju, O. The perception of taxi drivers in southern part of Saint Lucia, West Indies towards HIV/AIDS and condom use. Retrovirology 7, P144 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-7-S1-P144
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Keywords
- Infectious Disease
- Cancer Research
- Social Science
- Sexual Behaviour
- Health Care Provider
