Women of childbearing age in South Africa have been selected as the target population for a behavior change intervention to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV by reducing unintended pregnancies among HIV positive women. As explained in Assignment 1 (A1), this target population has been chosen because these women are directly at risk due to the norms and practices currently in place in South Africa. While engagement of male partners and healthcare workers is necessary to prevent unintended pregnancies among HIV positive women it has been proven that engagement of these additional groups alone is not sufficient.1 In order to construct an intervention with women at the center of the response2, three specific, modifiable, and …show more content…
In addition, the first behavior has been revised to make it more specific and in such, more measurable. Instead of simply recommending that women get tested at least annually, the intervention will additionally inform women of the importance of getting tested before, and if not after, becoming sexually active with a new partner as well as during routine health clinic or hospital visits, specifically if the visit is for family planning, prenatal, or postnatal services.
Part A: Selecting theoretical concepts, constructs and/or models
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory3 (SCT) has been selected as a model from which to create an effective behavior change intervention that targets the aforementioned three behaviors in order to ultimately reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancies among HIV positive South African women. SCT posits that “to achieve self-directed change, people need to be given not only reasons to alter risky habits but also the behavioral means, resources, and social supports to do so.”3 SCT is based on the notion of reciprocal causation wherein personal determinants, behavioral patterns, and environmental context influence one another bidirectionally and in such, an effective program must focus jointly on increasing awareness and knowledge, developing social and self-regulative skills, enhancing those skills and building resilient self-efficacy, and enlisting and creating social supports.3, 4
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to conduct new counts, and "added that the exercise had nothing to do with a tax
Research on the effect of social capital on HIV infections is a relatively new area and still in its infancy. Being as such, there are few studies that have looked at this relationship and the data is scant. Much of what is known about the effect of social capital on HIV infection rates stems from studies conducted in developing countries, particularly in Africa (3). There have been several studies that have found a direct relationship between access to social capital, both cognitive and structural, and positive individual health (3). In a cross-sectional study with 3,586 participants done
Author’s Thesis: Throughout the South African American women organized labor protests for various reasons such as higher wages, and better working conditions. They took matters into their own hands through physical and political means.
Looking through the theme of Development Issues of women and health on women’s health, specifically empowerment of women and improving maternal health, I focus on the mothers2mothers organization. These constraints are being limited for the sake of this paper to the stigma of HIV positive mothers and the discriminatory medical services that are then placed on HIV positive mothers in South Africa. This raises the problem of mothers identifying as HIV positive in South Africa as they are then being stigmatized, therefore I will be asking, how does the organization takes steps in order to help protect the women from stigmitation as they are in the prevent[ion] mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program? Analyzing the constraints of participation of HIV positive mothers leads to the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS infection, the lack of women’s empowerment, and the deficiency of appropriate and culturally sensitive clinical support services, even in facilities providing PMTCT services, means that many women go through their ordeal alone, confused and afraid.
HIV is an epidemic that is present worldwide, the disease is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa for the most part. In context, of the estimated thirty-four million cases of HIV in 2008, twenty-two to twenty-three cases were in sub-Saharan Africa. On the contrary, 1.4 million people are infected with HIV in North America. (Sigall K. Bell, MD, 2011, p. 38). Further, the sum of global infections approximately two million are under fifteen of age. Approximately 50,000 cases a year are in the United States due to the lack of prevention, which then leads to overall prevention. Potential causes of the spreading of HIV are non-effective educational messages along with the high-risk sexual behavior. Also, this just calls for increasing chances of acquiring
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) states that more than a million people in the United States alone are living with, and dying from Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and almost one in seven people are unaware of their HIV infection status. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections worldwide has remained relatively high. The trend of new infections continues at an increased level particularly among certain population groups and geographical locations with many separate epidemics. Each of these epidemics involves different risk behaviors and practices, such as unprotected sex with multiple partners or sharing intravenous drug equipment (Marcus et.al, 2015). Some countries have made tremendous efforts in expanding and ensuring access to treatment, but have made little to no progress in advancing HIV/AIDS prevention programs, whereas other countries with declining HIV/AIDS prevalence are not making enough and rapid progress to ensure access to, and availability of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention resources. HIV/AIDS has gradually declined in the amount of media attention it receives, especially in the United States as cancer remains the global number one health issue. HIV/AIDS is still prevalent in the communities and it is important that the general public remain educated and sensitized about the disease process and its
Preventative services is an important aspect of health care though the common practice in health care in the United States is intervention. The demand and need for medical care and services can be reduced by implementing preventative care. Prescreening is essential to not only reducing cost but to individualized quality care which improves health outcomes for patients. An important area for preventative measures is family planning for teens and young females, and the monitoring of behavioral changes to reduce risks of unwanted pregnancies and
HIV/AIDS is an ongoing epidemic in the United States. The African American population is greatly affected by this due to high risk behaviors such as, unprotected heterosexual contact, injection drug use, unprotected sexual contact, multiple sexual partners and fear of disclosing sexual orientation. There is a great need to provide effective HIV/AIDS prevention education materials to the population, in particular those in the African American population. Prevention education programs, based on curriculums that can be implemented to groups in, clinics, and other community settings have been found to be a promising form of intervention to reduce sexual risk behaviors. Although community based programs are the simplest and one of the most efficient routes in providing prevention education to the population, prevention efforts have been shown to be ineffective due to lack of appropriate resources and fear of disclosure.
With the approach currently implemented, the CDC has seen an alarming rise in the numbers regarding pregnancy rates and STDs, with the majority affecting 15 to 24 year olds. This is resulting from the ineffective and misleading
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of people in the world living with HIV/AIDS reside in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since there is currently no vaccine to prevent the spread of the infection, there have been countless attempts in the past to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are multiple ways of infection spread in Sub-Saharan Africa. People are contracting the disease through, drug use, sexual relations, giving birth, and blood-to-blood contact. With so many ways to contract the infection it makes the prevention of spreading the infection so difficult, especially in such a low-income country. These challenges have not stopped many scientists, educators, and health-care professionals create interventions to try and stop the wildfire, that is the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub- Saharan Africa. Most interventions have failed and some have helped. There are a huge amount of factors that need to be carefully thought about when creating an intervention. What looks good on paper may not work for the culture of a country. Making all people in sub- Saharan Africa listen, understand and act on a plan is nearly impossible.
The target groups that are most affected include orphan children, young women and girls, prison staff and inmates and men who have sex with men. HIV and AIDS in Lesotho extremely affect women. Violence based on gender is found to be one the most significant reasons as to why there is such an increase of HIV/AIDS among women in our country. We do know that our society is generally male-controlled, so often women may not refuse sex with their significant other. In cases where women choose to refuse sex in our country, it may result in our women being brutally beaten or threatened. Women in our country who choose not to refuse sex increases susceptibility to sexual violence and increase the risk for HIV/AIDS. The next affected population is the young people of our community. This target population suffers from a lack of knowledge concerning safer sex practices. It is also important to consider that the younger generations in our community are engaging in sex at earlier with lack awareness about safe sex. Additionally, the increase spread if HIV/AIDS forces children into orphanages and pushes children in our community to become caregivers of older generations. As a result, education for children in our population begins to suffer dramatically. Since education of the younger generation is taking an intense blow, it leads to an increase in poverty levels. Mother-to-child transmission is another risk factor that
Though it is looked down upon by society, underage girls are constantly being forced into marriages. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that two-fifths of all African girls are married before the age of 18. In these areas of poverty, the people are also extremely uneducated about sex and contraception, and young women are getting pregnant at younger and younger ages. Africa has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, yet their knowledge and use of contraception is extremely low. In some cases, this is due to the extremist religions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Like some religious groups in America, these people believe that contraception is a form of blasphemy. Because of social pressures like these, more than two thirds of women are not currently using modern contraception. And when these women become pregnant, there is a one in thirty-one chance that they will have complications with the pregnancy and die. This cycle of underage marriage, pregnancy, and death is one that Africa is working hard to break. Women throughout the continent are taking charge of public health campaigns at local and national
Alternatively, Social Cognitive Theory aims to explain how people acquire behavioral patterns and change these behaviors. This idea claims that behavioral change depends on three factors: environment, which can be social or physical, situational or permanent; people, where behaviors are formed based on observational learning; and behavioral capability, which means that to perform a behavior one must know and understand it. Social Cognitive Theory can be best demonstrated through a study that aimed to reduce alcohol use in teens. The study used community attention, parental education, support of alcohol free events, and classroom discussions to try to reduce the access to alcohol for teens. By the conclusion of the study, parental norms were less accepting of teen alcohol use than they were before the study.
Woman in ancient Africa had roles such as,such as cleaning,working,and bearing children. Many woman in Africa do not finish School because if certain religious beliefs. They will have to get married and a very young age and start a family. Once this woman becomes a wife her duties are just the same as many men.Her duties consist of gather food and preparing dinner for her family. Once she step in to motherhood then her duties consists of raising the small children .She will teach and nuture the child as she continues her duties as a mother and wife
Although male African rail workers and the strikes are the main focus of God’s Bits of Wood, African women also played an important role in supporting the strikes. In the beginning of the novel, African women did not have a lot of voices in regard to the men decision to participate in the trade unions. They just followed their relatives/husbands decision and support them like they supposed to. The women did not really have any opinions in regard of the issue. Their jobs at home were to feed their children and to find food in order to support their relatives/husbands who were busy with the strikes. It was until the toubabs decided to attack one of the women that they started to fully support their relatives decision to strike. When the policemen