Key highlights of 2012 NARHS+ Survey Report

It was aimed at providing information on key HIV & AIDS and reproductive health knowledge and behaviour related issues.  According to the report, the major objective of NARHS Plus was to obtain accurate HIV prevalence estimates and information on behavioural and other risk factors related to HIV infection at the national, zonal and to some […]

It was aimed at providing information on key HIV & AIDS and reproductive health knowledge and behaviour related issues.  According to the report, the major objective of NARHS Plus was to obtain accurate HIV prevalence estimates and information on behavioural and other risk factors related to HIV infection at the national, zonal and to some extent the state levels. In addition, it aims to provide information on the situation of reproductive and sexual health and its determinants in Nigeria, and to provide data for the assessment of the impact of on-going family planning and HIV/ AIDS behaviour change interventions, as well as to yield insights into existing gaps for its effectiveness.
It highlighted that the data collection took place between September and December 2012 from a total of 32,543 Households (Rural = 22,192 & Urban = 10,351). The 31,235 individual respondents interviewed in NARHS Plus II; consisting of 15,596 males and 15,639 females showed a response rate of 88%. The report should be simplified and further analysed into simpler fact sheets, flyers and policy briefs to further engage policy makers at national, state and LGA levels for the improvement of relevant health services and health issues that are reported in the survey. Due to limited space, I will comment on only few aspects of the report.
Knowledge, opinion and attitudes about HIV and AIDS.
Awareness about HIV and AIDS is generally high in the country (91%) but with a decline from 94% in 2007. However, slightly less than a quarter (24%) indicated that they had seen someone with HIV or knew someone who died of AIDS. Overall, only 2% of the respondents rated their chances of being infected by HIV as high, 43% rated their chances low, and 47% believed that they were at no risk at all. Less than half of the respondents knew all the five HIV transmission routes. About a fifth reported misconceptions about transmission of HIV. The highest misconception was that HIV is transmitted through sharing of toilets (22%), followed by kissing (20%) and mosquitoes/bedbugs (20%). Knowledge about how to prevent HIV was observed to be generally high but lower compared with 2007. Knowledge of staying with one uninfected partner was highest (81%) compared with 85% in 2007, followed by avoiding sharing sharp objects (76%) compared 82% in 2007, abstaining from sex (72%) compared with75% in 2007, and avoiding sex with sex worker (67%) as against 71% in 2007. On mother to child transmission, 62% reported that HIV can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy.
Condom  knowledge, access and use.
Seventy three percent of all respondents reported having heard of the male condom. There were rural/urban differences, with 66% in rural areas compared to 84% in urban areas. Similarly, a higher proportion of males (81%) than females (65%) had heard of male condoms. Overall, 76% of respondents who had heard of condoms considered them accessible and 66% thought condoms were affordable. More than four-fifths of the respondents considered male condoms to be effective in preventing unplanned pregnancy (84%), protecting against STIs (82%) and HIV and AIDS (82%).
Family planning.
Fifty percent of women knew at least one method of contraception compared to 52% of men. But 48% of women and 50% of men knew at least a modern method of contraception. A higher proportion of sexually active unmarried women knew at least one modern contraceptive method (62%) compared to non-sexually active women (34%). The most known modern contraceptive methods mentioned were the male condom (33%) and injectables (19%). These findings show a substantial decline for all the indicators from the findings of the 2007 NARHS. Overall, the percentage of the females using any method of contraceptive and a modern method of contraceptive was 13% and 10%, respectively.
Maternal and Child health.
Among women who had given birth in the last five years, 65% received ante-natal care during their last pregnancy. The proportion that received ANC was higher among urban (82%) compared to rural areas (57%). But South East geographical zone had the highest proportion (86%) of pregnant women who received ANC in their last pregnancy, while the lowest proportion was recorded in the North West (49%). ANC attendance varied substantially according to educational attainment of the respondents. While 92% of the respondents with higher education attended ANC, only 40% of those with no formal education attended ANC.
HIV Sero – prevalence.
The national HIV prevalence rate obtained in this survey is 3.4%, lower than 3.6% reported in 2007. HIV prevalence was higher among the wealthier (3.7%) than the poorer (2.9%) among females (3.5%) than males (3.3%) and slightly higher in the rural areas (3.6%) compared with the urban (3.2%). It was highest in the South South zone (5.5%) and lowest in the South East (1.8%). The HIV prevalence was generally higher among respondents with primary and secondary education (4.0%) and lowest among respondents that had Qur’anic education only (2.4%). HIV prevalence was also highest among the 35-39 years age group (4.4%) and lowest among the 15-19 years age group (2.9%) while the widowed had the highest prevalence (6.2%).
All comments to Dr Aminu Magashi at [email protected]