The Prevalence of Consistent Condom use among Western Command Force in Bahir Dar City, North West Ethiopia
Background: Despite recent declines in global HIV/AIDS mortality, HIV/AIDS was still the fifth leading cause of global DALYs in 2010. The distribution of HIV/AIDS burden is not equal across regions and different population segments. Sub Saharan countries are disproportionately affected from the disease despite. In 2012; roughly 25 million people were living with HIV in the region, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the global total. People in the military are part of a social group with particular risk factors of isolation, often being far from home, working in extremely stressful environments, so that are at higher risk of sexual transmitted diseases including the non curable disease, AIDS. Objectives: To assess consistent condom use and associated factors among military personnel in Western Command in Bahir Dar City, in 2013. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2013 among 898 military personnel in Western command in Bahir Dar City, North west Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses with SPSS version 16 software package. Results: This study revealed that the prevalence of consistent condom use among Western command force in Ethiopia was 59.4%. Consistent condom use among armed force of western command was significantly associated with sex of the respondents (AOR = 2.05, 95%, CI = (1.16, 3.63), educational status of the armed force (AOR = 0.63, 95%, CI = (0.45, 0.89) and (AOR= 0.55, 95%, CI = (0.34, 0.91) and Marital status of the respondents (AOR=1.51, 95%CI= (1.07, 2.15). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of consistent condom use among Western command in Ethiopia was very low and the main predictors of consistent condom use were found to be sex, educational level, and marital status. Therefore, interventions targeting sex, educational status and marital status are recommended.
