Choice of HIV/AIDS preventive strategy: Evidence from Ghana

Samuel K. Annim, University of Cape Coast

The focus of this paper is to examine factors influencing individual’s choice of preventing HIV/AIDS; namely, abstinence, faithfulness and condom use. Firstly, we posit a variation between the ‘ideal’ HIV/AIDS preventive strategy and personal choice. Secondly, we argue that being without any religious affiliation leads to condom use relative to abstinence and faithfulness. Based on the 2005 Ghana Living Standard Survey data, chi-square and multinomial logistic regression are used to respectively test the two hypotheses. We observe that respondents who recommend abstinence or faithfulness opt for condom use in their own circumstance. The main explanatory variable indicates that being affiliated with a religion informs the choice of either abstinence or being faithful. The foregoing suggests that the church has an important role to play in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.