Abstract:

Background information: Despite being in high risk of HIV/AIDS infections, most of young people do not test for HIV voluntarily. However, some efforts have been made by Tanzania to get more people tested for HIV including VCT. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with the uptake of Voluntary Counselling and Testing among medical and non-medical university students in Mwanza Tanzania.

Methodology: A cross sectional prospective study was conducted at Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences and St Augustine University of Tanzania, from March to May. The study involved students aged from 18 to 25 years with total of 379 participants. Data were collected using self-administered, structured questionnaires and analyzed using STATA® 13 (Statistical Corporation, College Station, TX, US).

Results: The level of uptake of HIV voluntary counselling and testing among medical and non-medical university students was found to be moderate, that is 62.43% for medical students and 56.84% for non-medical students. The factors that influenced the uptake of VCT for HIV were found to be university, awareness to importance of VCT. Also there were factors that hindered the uptake of VCT and these are, ‘not believing to have infection’, ‘never been advised’, ‘fear of positive results’, and ‘lack of confidentiality by the provider’.

Conclusion: The level of uptake of HIV voluntary Counselling and Testing is moderate and the factors influencing the uptake of the service are university, awareness to importance of VCT, fear of positive results, not believing to have infection, never been advised and lack of confidentiality by the provider.