Gender inequality in home based care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Monduli district, Tanzania
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Date
2009
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Gender inequalities arc universal and in most cases women have been the victim. This
study was conducted to assess gender inequality in home based care (HBC) for people
living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Monduli district. Specifically the study examined
differences in quality and in opinions on sufficiency of care and support services received
by male and female PLWHA in the households. It also determined the attitude of care
givers on suitability of various HBC components to male and female PLWHA and
relationship between quality of care and socio-economic and demographic variables. Data
were collected using face-to-face interviews from 76 PLWHA and 59 care givers from
AAIDRO-CBHC programme. Analysis of data involved computer program Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0 where descriptive and inferential methods
were used. Index scores were used to assess quality of care, opinions of PLWHA and
altitude of care givers on HBC components. Results showed no significant difference (at
P<0.05) in quality of care received by male and female PLWHA in the study area and
51.3% of surveyed PLWHA were getting high quality of care. About 75% of care givers in
the homes were women. Majority of PLWHA had the opinion that the care they were
getting was only moderately sufficient. However, the care givers’ attitude towards
provision of care and support to their patients was not gender biased though they and the
surveyed PLWHA still perceive male individuals as the appropriate for inheritance and
control of family income. None of the socio-economic and demographic variables tested
had any influence (at P<0.05) on the quality scores by PLWHA. It is recommended that
user friendly technologies that save time and labour be developed so as to at least relieve
women of the care giving burden. Also more CHBC providers should be trained to enable
them to train more care givers in the homes.
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Thesis
Keywords
Gender inequality, Monduli district, Tanzania, HIV/AIDS-home based care