Health and social support services to HIV/AIDS infected individuals in Tanzania: Employees and Employers perceptions
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Public Health
Abstract
Background: HIV is a major public health problem in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It often leads
to loss of productive labour and disruption of existing social support system which results in deterioration of
population health. This poses a great challenge to infected people in meeting their essential goods and services.
This paper examines health and social support services provided by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in
Tanzania.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, which employed qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection
and analysis. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to assess the health and social support
services provision at employers and employees perspectives. The study participants were employees and employers
from public and private organizations.
Results: A total of 181 employees and 23 employers from 23 workplaces aged between 18–68 years were involved.
The results show that 23.8% (i.e., 20.4% males and 27.3% females) of the employees had at least one member of
the family or close relatives living with HIV at the time of the study. Fifty six percent of the infected employees
reported to have been receiving health or social support from their employers. Employees’ responses were
consistent with those reported by their employers. A total of 12(52.2%) and 11(47.8%) employers reported to have
been providing health and social supports respectively. Female employees (58.3%) from the private sector (60.0%)
were more likely to receive supports than male employees (52.6%) and than those from the public sector (46.2%).
The most common health and social support received by the employees were treatment, and nutritional support
and reduction of workload, respectively.
Conclusions: HIV/AIDS infected employees named treatment and nutritional support, and soft loans and reduced
workload respectively, as the most important health and social supports they needed from their employers. This
study provides baseline information for further studies on provision of health and social support services by
employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in the context of a developing economy like Tanzania.
Keywords: Family member, Treatment and nutritional support, Workload, Workplaces
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Family member, Treatment and nutritional support, Workload, Workplaces
Citation
doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-630