Knowledge and awareness about AIDS of urban and rural women of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study utilized data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2004 to identify the 
determinants of knowledge about AIDS for women of urban and rural areas of Bangladesh, bi-variate and 
multivariate logistic regression methods were employed in analyzing data. This study found that a wider 
gap exists between urban and rural areas regarding knowledge about AIDS, where every 8 out of 10 
urban women know about AIDS but almost half of the rural women still do not know about AIDS. Mass 
media play a major role for growing awareness about AIDS in both of these areas. In the urban area 61.6 
percent women knew at least one correct way to avoid AIDS but rural women are in miserable condition 
because the corresponding figure for rural women was only 31.3% that means 37.7 and 67.7% among 
urban and rural women respectively still did not know how to avoid AIDS. Binary logistic regression 
method shows that education, occupation, ever use of contraception, currently using condom, 
permission to go to hospital/health center, mass media exposure, region of residence and wealth index 
significantly influence the knowledge about AIDS among rural women, whereas, in the urban areas 
except occupation and currently using condom all these remaining variables appear as the significant 
predictors of knowledge about AIDS.