HIV/AIDS and Construction Workers: Knowledge, Risk Sexual Behaviours and Attitude

INTRODUCTION: The construction industry depends mainly on labour to translate other resources into a physical object (i.e. building, road, airport etc.). The industry’s workforce is always mobile and its activities are characterized by difficult working conditions. The mobile workforce of industry and their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS pandemic have been fairly researched. The objective of the study is to determine construction workers’ HIV/AIDS knowledge, risk sexual behaviours and their attitude towards HIV/AIDS.

METHOD: The study adopted a cross sectional research design and purposive sampling method was used to select respondents. The researched area included sites in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Dodoma cities. A sample size involved 20 construction sites and 5 respondents from each site. A hundred questionnaires were distributed out of which 58 were fairly filled.The study adapted standard questionnaires developed by UNAIDS, Family Health International (FHI) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). The collected data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0.

RESULTS: The results show that most construction workers have low HIV knowledge, low risk sexual behaviours and positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, indicators of low knowledge were evident in awareness of PMTCT services, HIV can be spread through breastfeeding, HIV can be spread through sharing injection and HIV can be spread through unsafe sex.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion risk sexual behaviours are low, attitude towards HIV/AIDS is generally positive but HIV knowledge is low. However, there are alarming concerns in some indicators of both risk sexual behaviours and attitude noted in the study.