‘AIDS Won’t Infect You from Buying Vegetable’: Unmarried Youth Perception toward Shopkeepers Living With HIV/AIDS: Findings from Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2012

Abstract

Introduction: Perception toward persons living with HIV-Aids (PLWHA) reflects stigmatization and discrimination against HIV infected persons in the population. The number of new HIV infection among Indonesian youth is three times higher than middle age population. Youth in Indonesia should be given priority in terms of understanding their perception that may inhibit them from accessing to HIV/AIDS information, care and treatment. This study aimed, therefore, to find out about youth perception toward PLWHA, specifically in youth’s agreement to buy vegetables from PLWHA.

Methods: The total number of 16,551 never married youth from the Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) 2012 special module on Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) was studied. The question on ‘would buy fresh vegetables from shopkeeper who had the AIDS virus is used to measure the perception of respondents regarding stigma on HIV/AIDS infection. Binary Logistic regression was employed to identify factors that might influence youth perception toward PLWHA.

Results: Older youth still want to buy vegetable from shopkeeper who got infected with AIDS virus comparing to younger youth. Male youth said it doesn’t matter for them to buy vegetable from shopkeeper who had AIDS virus. Besides that, youth who lived in Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara region were more open with the existence of AIDS person followed with various AIDS information that they can access from mass media, professional institution, and friends/relatives. Youth showed positive perception toward PLWHA since they have knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS.

Conclusion: This study suggests that youth with contact with various media will be easier to get HIV/AIDS information and having more knowledge in HIV/AIDS. Besides that, living in well developed areas make youth more understanding about HIV/AIDS and reducing stigma on PLWHA. Programs should be designed based on youth characteristics that can be applied in all regions to increase positive perception toward PLWHA.