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Karusa
Kiragu and Caroline Mackenzie.
"Promoting VCT at the workplace: Operations research among
health workers and teachers."
ABSTRACT
Issues
Two large and influential groups of workers—teachers and health
workers—often are overlooked by HIV/AIDS workplace programs. It is
assumed, often incorrectly, that these populations are knowledgeable
about HIV-related issues and do not need targeted programming.
Because of their status in the community, they may also defer
seeking HIV testing because of fears of what the public may say. We
describe two operations research projects that address these groups.
Description
The Zambia “Caring for Caregivers” intervention started in 2004
among 2,700 hospital employees. The Kenya “Teachers Matter”
intervention started in 2006 among 2,000 primary and secondary school
teachers. Both activities use a quasi-experimental research design
with baseline and follow-up data collection. Both used an
employee-centered peer education strategy that emphasizes HIV status
awareness.
Lessons learned
In both Zambia and Kenya, only 25 percent of hospital staff and
teachers, respectively, had been tested for HIV at baseline. In
Zambia, the intervention was associated with a 68 percent increase in
getting tested at follow-up, and in Kenya, monitoring activities
indicate greater acceptance of HIV testing (follow-up data will be
collected in March 2007). In both countries, the project has been
associated with greater comfort discussing HIV. The findings also
suggest that demystifying HIV testing by demonstrating the process
is an important component of the interventions.
Recommendations
Because health workers and teachers are particularly crucial to
a country's development, these groups should be targeted
beneficiaries of HIV/AIDS workplace programs.
Learning objective
- To test the feasibility of implementing workplace programs
for special groups and caregivers.
Poster Session 5013.0—Policy Issues, HIV Intervention Programs,
and Educational Strategies Targeting Underserved Populations
Wednesday, 7 November 2007,
8:30–9:30
am
APHA 2007 Conference Web site
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