Indigenous knowledge utilisation strategies for HIV prevention in Uganda: A study of secondary school adolescents in Kampala District

Abstract

HIV/AIDS remains a global threat especially amongst young people in the Developing world. Several preventive options have been fronted, most especially informed by biomedical facts, but HIV prevalence still remains high. In circumstances of ethnic diversity, the use of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) generated in one’s cultural context is one of the avenues being exploited by Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) to guide adolescents in secondary schools on healthy information choices on HIV prevention. However, there was insufficient information on the implementation of this approach, especially IK content, how it is sought and used in the school setting. This study assessed use of IK in HIV prevention, among adolescents in ten secondary schools in Kampala District. Wilson’s model of Information Behavior and Social Network Analysis framework formed the conceptual anchors for the study. The objectives were; examining IK utilization in the existing HIV/AIDS school initiatives, identifying and documenting IK content used by adolescents for HIV prevention, analyzing adolescents’ information seeking and to propose a model for enhancing IK use in secondary schools in Uganda. Concurrent mixed methods research design was adopted with a study population of 578 respondents. Over all 399 survey respondents participated with 46.6% males and 53.4% females, while a total of 179 key informants engaged in 39 key informant interviews and 20 adolescent single sex focus group interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi square statistic test. Content and thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The study found out that IK is minimally used for HIV prevention in the schools, yet adolescents had high IK content awareness. Gender and school category were significantly associated with IK use at P-values<0.05. Some of the IK content identified promotes safer sexual practices, while some information was gendered and misleading on HIV prevention. At family level, mothers were most popular information source (48%) while at school, senior men teachers (65%) were identified. Multimedia was preferred by the adolescents for communication of IK including; print (78%), Electronic (74%) and IK media (68%). The study concluded that the cultural approach has not yet been fully operationalized for HIV prevention in the schools. The study recommends that a national IK school health policy be developed by the MoES to guide IK use and make it acceptable in the school setting. The level of interaction, synergies between IK sources and adolescents in the schools be strengthened and both misleading and useful indigenous information documented in this study is integrated in HIV/AIDS school information.