Abstract:

Introduction: Globally, it is estimated that over 40 million are living with AIDS/HIV, with its impacts likely to be felt generation to come. In sub Saharan Africa, alone the epidemic had orphaned nearly 12 million children aged less than 18 years. VCT is the process whereby an individual undergoes counseling to enable him/her to make the informed choice about being tested for HIV.

Objective: To determine prevalence and factors associated uptake of VCT services among sexually active Tanzanians age 15-45 years at Nyamagana district.

Methodology: The study was conducted at Nyamagana district and the community based cross sectional study was used. The targeted population were people aged between 15-45 years. The sample size was 318. The data were obtained by simple random sampling and oneself completion for participants as the means of collecting data. Thus, the study was conducted during September and the questionnaire method was used. So, all the data were collected, entered and analysis was performed using IBMPSS statistics 20 programs. The approval for conducting the study was sought from Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences Ethics and Committee.

Results: In this study the prevalence of VCT services users was found to be 67.3%. VCT services were found to be higher in male 171(53.8%). And majority were 25-45 age group 178(71.8%). The highest VCT uptake was observed among those study participants aged between 25-45 years where 178 used VCT services. At which age showed positive association with the uptake of VCT services with the Chi Square of 10.2 and the p-value of 0.001. 161(50.6%), were satisfied on how results were handled, 46(14.5%) weren’t with p value = 0.0001 which was statistically significance. Regarding willingness to take care of a family member with AIDS, 104 were not willing, 52 were willing, and 58 were not sure. There was positive association with the uptake of VCT services (chi square of 13.1 and P-value of 0.001).

Conclusion: Although awareness and utilization of VCT services rates were reportedly high, more efforts need to be done in order to increase awareness and promote utilization. HIV/AIDS educational campaign programs needs to be strongly pursued, with emphasis on the benefits of VCT services. This has the potential of reducing stigma and increase utilization.