Role played by integrated community based initiatives (ICOBI) on the standards of living of HIV-positive people in Bushenyi District

Abstract

ICOBI is among the first organizations in Uganda and specifically in Bushenyi district to pioneer community health insurance schemes in partnership with Bushenyi medical Centre. This study was aimed at determining the respondent’s factors in terms of gender, age, marital status, level of education, and place of residence, income levels, to establish the relationship between economic factors and income accessibility, and to find out the contribution of ICOBI on the welfare of the people in Bushenyi and data analysis using STATA at univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis levels. Descriptive statistics generated frequencies and percentages on the profile of respondents that showed that the majority of the respondents were female, majority were in the age brackets of 15- 24, 79% respondents were married, 57% attained secondary education, 59.1% were poor, 62.1% weren’t on a balanced diet, and 31.8% didn’t have any other health related problem. The bivariate analysis was done using Pearson chi squared measure of association at 5% level of significance and gender, marital status, education, place of residence, and income level had a relationship with income accessibility From the binary logistic results, it was observed that males had higher chance of having access to income than females, those with higher education had higher chance of having access to income than those with lower education, those who were in urban areas had more chance of having access to income than those in rural areas, those in higher income groups had higher chance of having access to income than those who had lower incomes, and lastly those who were married had higher chance of having access to income than the single, widowed and divorced. I recommend that people in Bushenyi living with HIV should take it as a vulnerability and try to look for employment so as to improve on their standards of living. And also there should be more organizations that come up to advise, counsel and teach the HIV positive people on how to accept themselves so as to boost their esteem and provide financial knowledge to them and teach them on how to stay with HIV and also live a normal life