STUDY OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONS ATTENDING AN INTEGRATED COUNSELING AND TESTING CENTRE AT GWALIOR

• Published in: Journal of evolution of medical and dental sciences Vol. 4; no. 104; pp. 16957 - 16959
• Main Authors: Subodh, Mishra, Akshat, Pathak, Mahendra, Chouksey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Akshantala Enterprises Private Limited 28.12.2015
• Subjects: Women's rights
• DOI: 10.14260/jemds/2015/2558
• ISSN: 2278-4748

BACKGROUND India is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world, with over 1.2 billion inhabitants. HIV/AIDS spread in such a country is a big challenge for health professionals. OBJECTIVES To study socio-demographic characteristics of ICTC attendees. MATERIALS AND METHOD A cross-sectional study among 244 attendees of ICTC using a pretested semi-structured schedule regarding socio-demographic variables. RESULTS Majority of the persons were Hindu (96.72%) and 47.95% belonged to SC category. Most of them (53.69%) resided in rural area. Majority of study subjects were found non-migrant (91.39%). Majority (79.1%) of subjects were married. More than one third of the study subjects were illiterate. The most common source of income for males (38.61%) was semi-skilled occupation. Among females 72.09% were housewives. Majority (39.75%) of study subjects belonged to socio-economic status class IV, while only 5.33% belonged to class I. CONCLUSION Present study was conducted to know socio-demographic characteristics of attendees at ICTC Centre of G. R. Medical College Gwalior with a view to find out population, which could not be benefitted from taking ICTC services so that those groups be mobilized by way of policy formulation to attend ICTC, which is important for their health wellbeing as regards to prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Study revealed that Education, Women Empowerment. Social Mobilization and IEC are few key issues, which deserve to be addressed for an effective coverage of at risk population. KEYWORDS ICTC, HIV/AIDS, Socio Economic Status.