Impacts of Socio-Health Factors on HIV Epidemic: An Ecological Analysis of Global Data

Background: The main purpose of this study investigates the relationships and assesses the potential roles of socio-health factors on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic in the globe.
Data and methods: We compiled country level indicators of HIV prevalence rates, are contraceptive prevalence rate, physicians density, portion of Muslim populations, adolescent fertility rate, and mean year of schooling of all the countries (N=187) in the globe from the United Nations (UN) agencies. To examine the associations between HIV prevalence rates and to extract major factors from indicators of the later five categories, we carried out backward multiple regression analysis.
Results: The national HIV prevalence rate was significantly correlated with almost all the predictors. Backward multiple linear regression analysis identified the portion of Muslims, physicians density, and adolescent fertility rate are as the three most prominent factors linked with the national HIV epidemic.
Conclusions: The findings support the hypotheses that a higher adolescent fertility rate leads to longer period of sexual activity that increases the risk of HIV infection and social restriction of Muslims and sufficient physicians will decelerate the spread of HIV infections in the society.