Women, HIV, Vulnerability, and Risk in Uganda

Despite Uganda’s 30-year acclaimed history of controlling HIV, new infections are continuing to occur, with marked gender inequalities. This is attributed to reliance on a response informed by HIV/AIDS evidence generated through individualistic approaches to AIDS research. There is need to transcend these realms and recognize more the fundamental influence of social factors in women’s increased vulnerability to HIV infection. This research will investigate the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and women’s higher seropositivity. Multilevel analysis will be carried out on data of Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, and Uganda HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey conducted in 2011. The research will analyse this cross sectional data of 32 710 individuals collected in 20 713 households. Multilevel analysis using Windows (MLwiN) software will be used for multilevel modelling. Primary analysis provides evidence that SES may be an important predictor of women’s higher seropositivity. HIV prevalence is higher among females, those in employment, the widowed, the wealthy, and the un-educated. The final analysis is expected to confirm the associations between SES and women’s higher seropositivity, and add to a growing body of evidence that SES plays an influential role in increasing women’s vulnerability to HIV infection.