| dc.description.abstract | ABSTRACT:
Emuhaya Subcounty has an HIV prevalence rate of 7.4% whereas Vihiga County and national prevalence are at 4.7% and 6% respectively. The youth aged 15 to 24 years especially the female are the most vulnerable. Youth in secondary school are within this age bracket thus are not exceptions despite HIV & AIDS education being taught in schools for almost two decades. Studies indicate that teachers and students were not involved in establishing strategies that could enhance outcomes of HIV & AIDS education programmes. This could be the reason why interventions including counselling, Voluntary Counselling and Testing, peer involvement, parental involvement and condom use promotion are ineffective and or underutilized in schools. Studies document that these interventions have the potential to promote HIV & AIDS preventive behaviour particularly abstinence and condom use, The purpose of this study was therefore, to establish HIV & AIDS intervention promotion strategies in secondary schools in Emuhaya Subcounty, Vihiga County, Kenya. Specific objectives were to: establish the preferred intervention promotion strategies from students’ and teachers; determine differences in preferences of students and teachers; and of female and male students; establish factors that influenced choice of strategies; and identify the preferred strategies that have been addressed by the HIV & AIDS curriculum. For each intervention, preferred content, service providers and awareness creation strategies were key components of the promotion strategies. The study was guided by the Ecological Systems Theory as postulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner. A mixed method research design was used. The target population was 2960 form four students; and 359 teachers from 38 secondary schools. Systematic random sampling was used to select 13 schools while stratified random sampling selected 987 students on the basis of gender. Saturated sampling was used to select 180 teachers. However, 768 students and 135 teachers duly responded to the questionnaire. Questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guide and document analysis guide were used to collect data. The questionnaire and FGD guide were piloted in four (4) schools to check for reliability and dependability respectively. Face and content validity and credibility of the instruments were ascertained by measurement and evaluation experts. Quantitative data was analyzed using percentages, median, rank means, standard deviation; and Mann-Whitney U Test to establish group differences. Qualitative data was derived from the FGDs and document analysis. The findings of this study revealed that the respondents had varied preferences but their most preferred service providers included persons based in the school –the counsellor and peer educators, the home especially the mother and the health personnel; while their most preferred awareness creation strategies were notice boards and school counsellor referrals. There were significant differences in preferences on the basis of gender of students and between students and teachers in more than 60% of their preferences, however, their effect size were mostly negligible (r ≥.2) and in a few cases weak (.2 ≤ r ≥.4) thus the statistical significance was not practically significant. Factors that contributed to choice of strategies included feasibility of the strategy, attitude of the respondents towards it, level of anonymity and cost of utilizing the strategy. The curriculum did not recommend the intervention promotion strategies that the respondents’ preferred. The findings implied that for interventions to be successful the concerted efforts from school, home and health facilities and review of the curriculum were necessary. These findings could contribute to knowledge and practice on how best HIV & AIDS prevention programmes can be adapted so that they are more meaningful and appealing to youth in secondary schools. | en_US |
