Original Research Article
Year: 2014 | Month: October | Volume: 1 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 8-19
Determinants of the HIV/AIDS Epidemics Prevalence in Cameroon
Etengeneng Esther Agbor1, Mbu Daniel Tambi2
1Department of Biochemistry, 2Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Dschang, Cameroon
ABSTRACT
This study attempts to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of HIV/AIDS epidemics prevalence in Cameroon. The objectives are: examine the factors influencing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon, explore the factors fuelling HIV/AIDS by age group, decompose the determinants of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS by educational level and suggest policies to ameliorate HIV/AIDS prevalence on the basis of our analysis. We used the OLS estimate to compute our 2011 DHS data in STATA 10.1. The results show that factors such as: marital status, education in complete years of schooling, labour participation, sex of household head, occupation, household residence, frequency of listening to the radio and wealth status are strong determinants of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Cameroon. Result by age group reveals that age group 15 to 24 years is hardest hit by HIV/AIDS and second by 25 to 34 years. This is partly due to their vulnerable characteristics (naivety, dependence, decision making, activeness, transition, tenderness, schooling, job seeking as well as attractive/beauty stage of life) and on the other part, it’s due to their exploratory stage of life. The result by education level shows that HIV/AIDS affects more, people who did not go to school due to their inadequate knowledge in HIV/AIDS issues. Based on these results, we recommend that decision makers and academic authorities should design adult literacy programs and school courses gear towards HIV/AIDS awareness. This is a logical step towards poverty reduction in Cameroon due to HIV/AIDS complications.
Keywords: Determinants, HIV/AIDS epidemics, Prevalence, Ordinary Least Square, Cameroon