Faculty of Health Sciences

Examining the practice of school based sexuality education programme in primary schools in Bugiri district

2026-03-10T07:09:12Z

Examining the practice of school based sexuality education programme in primary schools in Bugiri district Acheng, Mystica Jameto Sexuality education has been highly controversial in Uganda in the past several decades. This comes as a result of perceived resistances from parents, teachers, religious leaders and law makers which are due to misunderstandings about the nature, purpose, and effects of sexuality education on young people (Boonstra, 2011; UNESCO, 2009). This study intended to examine the practice of school based sexuality education in primary schools in Bugiri district. It specifically examined the type of sexuality education program available to pupils, determined the factors influencing the type of sexuality education delivered, and critically assessed the usefulness of existing sexuality education programmes in Bugiri district. The study was a cross sectional study design which was descriptive in nature. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques for data collection which include questionnaires, focus group discussion, interviews and documentary review were used to collect data. Purposive sampling was utilized to select teachers and key informants according to their knowledge about the topic being researched while pupils were selected randomly. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 for quantitative data while thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The study found that the most commonly employed type of sexuality education was comprehensive education. Also, most of the teachers (72.2%) had integrated sexuality education lessons in other subjects and some teachers (26.5%) taught the lessons during co-curricular activities. While some teachers were not decided on a systematic way of teaching the subject. This means that there is no clear guidance at school level on how this type of education should be delivered thus, teachers did what was easier to practice. From the study findings time allocated to teach sexuality education was not adequate. The teachers indicated that most parents had positive attitude towards sexuality education. This is contributed to by the whole school approach used. The findings further indicated that the current practice of sexuality education in primary schools is poor (77.5%).This is due to the fact that sexuality education is not examinable hence teachers gave the subject less attention. Sexuality education was not part of teacher training curriculum, and there were no adequate facilities to facilitate teaching. Comprehensive education formed the most common type of sexuality education delivered to pupils in primary schools. Although it was also found that not all the teachers were teaching all topics in the curriculum, some skipped other topics. This means that some pupils did not receive holistic information to influence behavior positive change. Lack of adequate knowledge on sexuality education among teachers, limited resources and minimal time allocated for teaching sexuality education and believes influenced implementation of sexuality education curriculum in primary schools. Despite the critical importance and evidence justifying the need for sexuality education, the actual delivery of sexuality education in primary schools is still insufficient to help young people develop personal skills and influence behaviour change. Government should harmonize sexuality education curriculum for primary schools. All primary schools should be involved in sexuality education to facilitate reach of adolescents at risk due to limited and sometimes inaccurate information regarding sexuality issues. The training of teachers on sexuality education should be integrated as part of the teacher training curriculum and government should introduce an in-service course for teachers on sexuality education. The districts should develop clear tools for monitoring implementation of school based sexuality education to ensure quality age appropriate information are provided to all pupils. The issue of misconception around sexuality education topics should be taken up as serious advocacy issues that require attention of all stakeholders. Lillian Nantume Wampande

Factors associated with untimely uptake of early infant diagnosis (EID) testing among HIV exposed infants (HEI)

2025-05-29T02:25:09Z

Factors associated with untimely uptake of early infant diagnosis (EID) testing among HIV exposed infants (HEI) Nsubuga, Fredrick Background: Highly Exposed Infants (HEI) to HIV through their HIV positive mothers, require to receive timely Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) to enable identification of HIV positive infants, as to facilitate early treatment and follow up, and for negative infants, to reduce risk of infection by planning, counselling on appropriate feeding whilst maintaining adequate nutrition. Objective: To assess the factors associated untimely uptake of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) among HEIs attending Kiryandongo General Hospital. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was undertaken among 112 mothers in Kiryandongo Hospital, Kiryandongo District. All HIV positive mothers with HEIs aged 4 weeks to 18 months, enrolled and active in the Mother Baby Care Point (MBCP) in Kiryandongo Hospital were included in this study. Logistic regression was used to assess the factors associated with untimely EID among HEIs’. The data was analyzed by STATA 12 statistical software. Results: Most (70%) of HEIs obtained untimely EID. With all variables accounted for, the statistically independent predictor of untimely EID among HEIs where families where the household head had primary Education were more likely to have untimely EID compared to those where the household head had no formal education (AOR = 4.5986 [95% CI: 1.01-20.95], PV 0.049) Conclusion: Timely EID among HEI remains low in Uganda, Ugandan HEIs continue to be at risk of acquiring HIV infection due to untimely EID. The study recommends reducing untimely EID through proactively identifying and following mothers with identified predisposing factors to untimely EID among HEIs families, as opposed to follow up of HEIs mothers who have already missed timely EID. In addition, this study noted that a number of HEIs receive EID before the recommended timeline which may lead to poor diagnosis especially if the infant contracted HIV at birth. Mothers to HEIs should be given enough information during antenatal and at birth to ensure that they follow the proper recommendations. Most of factors that have been identified in most studies to influence the timeliness of EID did not show any significant association with untimely EID in this study. This calls for an in-depth qualitative study to understand the dynamics in rural settings and how they may influence the timeliness of EID Andinda Maureen

Correlates of intimate partner sexual violence among pregnant women in Napak district Northern Uganda

2025-04-14T10:27:02Z

Correlates of intimate partner sexual violence among pregnant women in Napak district Northern Uganda Amodoi, Godfrey Patrick Although historically portrayed as a gender issue, intimate partner sexual violence is of immense reproductive health importance, particularly during pregnancy. It is associated with gynecological complications not limited to vaginal trauma, dyspareunia, Vaginismus, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and Bacterial Vaginosis. Most of these have been found to be significant causes of infertility, and high risk pregnancies. That is in addition to Most of these have been found to be significant causes of high-risk pregnancies in addition to being significant antecedents of intrapartum complications, some of which are indications for cesarean births. Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the correlates of intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) among pregnant women in Napak district – northern Uganda. An analytical cross-sectional survey design was used to study 284 pregnant women in Napak district, who were sampled at both hospital and health centre III facilities. The hospital was purposively. The health center IIIs were randomly sampled. Pregnant women were randomly sampled at the hospital and center IIIs respectively. They were engaged in structured interviews, and the data captured using structured questionnaires, following which it was analyzed in SPSS version 25 using descriptive and inferential methods. A total of 284 women participated in the study. Slightly more than half 158/284(56%) of the pregnant women had experienced IPSV during their current pregnancies, with the most prevalent form being unwanted sexual advances 100 (63. 3%).The prevalence of IPSV was lower among women of gravidity of two (aPR = 0.785, CI = 0.684 - 0.901, P < 0.001), with a history of IPV in any earlier pregnancy (aPR = 0.742, CI = 0.681 - 0.808, P <0.001), with a history of emotional type violence (aPR = 0.823, CI = 0.705 - 0.961, P = 0.014). The prevalence is higher among multipara pregnant women (aPR = 1.907, CI =1.512 - 1.199, P <0.001), with a high rating of communication with spouses (aPR = 1.255, CI = 1.074 - 1.467, P = 0.004). IPSV is negatively correlated with ages of 29 and 39 years old (aPR = 0.762, CI = 0.704 - 0.825, P< 0.001), duration in marital relationship (aPR = 0.805, CI = 0.736 - 0.881, P <0.001), being catholic (aPR = 0.671, CI = 0.612 - 0.735, P<0.001). The prevalence of IPSV is lower among women with spouse‘s aged between the ages of 18 and 28 years (aPR = 0.667, CI = 0.588 - 0.756,P <0.001), higher among women with formally educated spouses (aPR = 1.117, CI = 1.024 - 1.220, P= 0.013), lower among women whose spouse were educated to primary (aPR = 0.762, CI = 0.652 - 0.891, P = 0.001), but higher among women whose spouses use non-illicit substances (aPR = 1.744, CI = 1.521 - 1.999, P <0.001). Being undecided about the belief that marital rape is not considered a grave crime traditionally, even during pregnancy (aPR = 0.671, CI = 0.598 - 0.753, P <0.001), reception of emotional support from anyone in society (aPR = 1.279, CI = 1.084 - 1.509, P = 0.004) and the perception that a pregnant woman who is sexually violated is not allowed to report to the elders (aPR = 1.225, CI = 1.010 - 1.486, P = 0.039) were the societal correlates of IPSV. Intimate partner sexual violence during pregnancy is highly prevalent among pregnant women in Napak district; about 6 in 10 of them experience it during pregnancy. Unwanted sexual advances are the commonest form of IPSV, followed by marital rape. Intimate partner sexual violence among pregnant women in Napak district is correlated with individual, relationship and societal characteristics, with individual characteristics being relatively more important. Nanyingi Miisa

Prevalence and factors associated with virological non suppression among HIV positive adolescents treated with antiretroviral therapy in Apac district

2025-04-14T10:27:01Z

Prevalence and factors associated with virological non suppression among HIV positive adolescents treated with antiretroviral therapy in Apac district Amegovu, Timothy Globally, there is an increasing population of adolescents and young people among people living with HIV which require more concentrated focus on adolescents and young people (UNICEF, 2018). High virological non-suppression rates among HIV+ adolescents on ART affect their health status, increase chances of HIV transmission, and ultimately diminish the effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The main study objective was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with virological non-suppression among HIV positive adolescents treated with antiretroviral therapy in the rural setting of Apac district. This is because there is limited information about virological non suppression and its associated factors among HIV positive adolescents enrolled in HIV care in many resource-limited settings. Retrospective cross-sectional design was used. Data for adolescents aged 10-19 years on ART from July 2016 to June 2017 were reviewed from Apac general hospital, Aduku HC IV and Akokoro HC III. In total, 701 of the adolescents were at least six months on ART. Data was collected using retrospective audit form, entered into Microsoft Excel, cleaned and exported into SPSS version 20 for statistical analysis at 95% Confidence Interval. Univariate (central tendencies, frequencies and percentages), Bivariate (Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test and binary logistic regression) and Multivariate analysis were used to analyse the data. Results: There were 532 valid records of adolescents (10-19 years) on ART. The mean age was 13(±2.67) years, 385 (72.4%) were aged 10-14 years. More than half 320 (60.2%) were females. The prevalence of virological non-suppression was 38.9% (n=207 95%CI: 34.74-43.20). Bivariate analysis showed statistically significant difference between age category (p=0.043), social support (p<0.001), levels of support (p<0.001), peer related influence (p<0.001), clients’ adherence to ART (p<0.001), treatment line (p=0.006), BMI (p=0.009) and HIV clinical stage status (p=0.017) with virological non-suppression. Multivariable logistic regression analysis using stepwise backward elimination modeling showed that adolescents aged 15-19 years (aOR=1.14, 95%CI: 0.63-2.08 p=0.662) contrarily that patients with most support contributed in increasing virological non-suppression (aOR=5.94, 95%CI: 3.82-9.25, p<001). On the other hand, adolescents provided with social support (aOR=0.34 95%CI: .16-.73 p=0.006.), had peer related encouragement (aOR=0.18, 95%CI: .13- .27 p<.001), adherence level of 85-94% (aOR=.36, 95%CI: .13-.99, p<.047*) and <85% (aOR=.29, 95%CI: .15-.59, p=.001) indicating level of reduction increases with increase in level of adherence and HIV clinical stage 3 (aOR=0.33, 95%CI: .19-.59, p<.001) were significantly associated with reduction in non-virological non-suppression. Virological non-suppression was at 38.9%. Adolescents aged 15-19 years and those provided with much support increases virological non-suppression. Adolescents with social support, had peer related encouragement during ART, had adherence of 85-94% and were in HIV clinical stage 3 were significantly associated with reduced virological non-suppression. Health care providers should develop strategies for ensuring all adolescents of all age groups achieve the recommended adherence level to ART, BMI, encourage parents or guardians and peers to provide positive social support and encouragement to adolescents on ART. Ndibazza Juliet