Knowledge and uptake of HIV intervention and prevention services in Manicaland, Zimbabwe: Current determinants of coverage and progress over time

Over the last decade, the Zimbabwe Government has implemented a range of services to prevent new infections and to support people living with HIV, e.g. HIV testing and counselling (HTC), anti-retroviral treatment (ART), prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), and male circumcision (MC).

We describe trends and patterns in knowledge and uptake of these services, investigate individual-level factors associated with greater levels of coverage, and analyse shortfalls in order to inform future policies on the scale-up of HIV services.

Data from the latest round of a large (n≈12,000) population-based cohort study in eastern Zimbabwe will be used in logistic regression models to analyse associations between demographic, socio-economic, behavioural and other factors, and knowledge and uptake of services. Temporal trends in uptake of services will be measured using data from earlier rounds of the study.

Preliminary univariate results suggest that knowledge of HIV services was high for HTC (82.3%; 95% CI: 91.6%-82.9%) and PMTCT (90.1%; 88.9%-91.2%) but lower for ART (40.1%; 39.3%-40.9%) and MC (8.4%; 7.7%-9.2%). Overall uptake was moderate for HTC (49.6%; 48.7%-50.4%) but quite high for PMTCT (86.4%; 79.3%-91.7%) and ART (79.8%; 76.9%-82.5%). Uptake varied by sex and age and may also differ by many other factors.