| dc.description.abstract | In spite of the efforts made by several stakeholders to reach out to most men, there is still low uptake of male circumcision in Uganda and the South Western region of Uganda in particular. This study sought to analyze the determinants of this male circumcision status in the South Western region of Uganda and also to find out the extent of uptake of circumcision among men, their knowledge about AIDS in relation to male circumcision and the extent to which socio-economic factors have influenced the male circumcision status. The study targeted the male population aged 15 to 54 years. Secondary data was used from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey datasets specifically, the male recode. The data was analyzed using Pearson correlation that was used as a basis for establishing association between the various socio-cultural factors and the male circumcision status.
Results showed that 24.3% of the respondents were circumcised. The results further indicated that all the respondents had knowledge about HIV/AIDS. At the bivariate level, the circumcision status was found to have a significant relationship at 5% level of significance, with residence, education level, religion, wealth status and whether the respondents had tested for HIV/AIDS. The results also showed that there was no significant relationship between male circumcision and knowledge about HIV/AIDS.
The conclusion is that male circumcision prevalence is low among the males in South Western Uganda and a significant number of men have not taken up the idea of getting circumcised. The major factors affecting uptake of circumcision are residence, education, religion, wealth status and having been tested for HIV.
Since high circumcision is associated with wealth, urban residence, Islamic religion, secondary education and having not tested for HIV, the study recommends strengthening wealth- creation programs, use of a variety of communication tools and working hand in hand with all religious leaders to increase knowledge about MC in rural areas and in other religious settings, starting programs which keep male children in school and integration of male circumcision into other health units and departments like HIV department to increase accessibility and availability of these services to people who go for HIV testing than having to look out for specific health centers. | |
