Unprotected heterosexual intercourse
Adolescents tend to have unprotected heterosexual intercourse, making them vulnerable to get HIV and even early unwanted pregnancies easily. Many women volunteering for the randomized test, and many pregnant women were infected more highly than lactating and nursing. Research by previous authors proved that it was due to sexual intercourse, although with observations, that wasn’t the case. Previously Jewekes and colleague found out that an increment in the HIV infection among young women was due to child sexual abuse. Trauma created in the life of the child is what prompted the author to dig deep in a different dimension of the adolescents.
Methodology
Detailed data were obtained were collected from all participants who had volunteered in being part. The collected data was based on social-demographic characteristics, sexual behavior, and pregnancy history. Young women were recruited from 70 different villages which were geographically grouped into seven different strata. Within each stratum there was random allocation of equal number of clusters to control or intervene. The cohort was maintained using a detailed contact information that was obtained at enrolment.
A detailed questionnaire that was detailed was used to collect data from all participants so as to ensure that the research results are not affected in any way. As a way of getting clear information the young women were asked whether they were pregnant and if so, what was the year that they got pregnant. They were splitted into three different categories; early adolescent pregnancy, later adolescent pregnancy and the referent group; them that did not report an adolescent pregnancy.
The analysis used a stratified method, a two-stage survey with sampled villages from predefined strata based on geographical characteristics and participants clustered within villages. The data analyses were carried out in strata 10 using the survey procedures where the procedures allowed for the account of independence in the observations due to the sampling design.
The researcher wanted to explore that early adolescent pregnancies would predict a high incidence of HIV infections over two years of follow up.
The World Health Organization was able to measure the experience of intimate partner violence against the women instrument. The instrument would measure single and multiple occurrences of physical abuse occurring within the previous twelve months.
Findings
The evidence on the effect of pregnancy on acquiring HIV is conflicting, with
studies reporting both higher and lower HIV acquisition risk during pregnancy when
prolonged antiretroviral therapy was accessible (Chetty et al, 2017)
Findings highlight that despite the negative perception of teenage pregnancies within township in South Africa, there are particular social and cultural circumstances that provide fertile grounds for its occurrence. The communities also played a role in maintaining social norms and it therefore facilitated the high rates of childbearing.
Young women who would experience adversity during childhood, specifically emotional and sexual abuse, were more likely to acquire HIV. Women who acquired HIV were younger when they first had sexual intercourse, and they were likely to report an early adolescent pregnancy. The study provided a very strong evidence on temporal aspects of occurrence of the pregnancies thereby ruling out the possibility that infection of HIV would occur simultaneously or rather preceded the early pregnancies. The early pregnancies are claimed to be associated with high numbers of lifetime partner and having partners who were old than the young individuals.
The South African children’s Act 38 of 2005 ensures that there is confidentiality for young women under the age of 18 who obtain advice on condoms and contraceptives. Aside from the fact that there is law, adolescents have reported experiences of judgmental attitudes from the health care providers when they access contraceptive services. They are afraid of their confidentiality with the health care providers thinking that they might discuss their contraceptive use with parents or relatives. The integration of family planning services was integrated into HIV care in South Africa as a core strategy to aimed at reducing unintended pregnancies among the women living with HIV during child-bearing. The study’s limitation was that it was done from a cohort of volunteers, which would limit the generalizability of the findings. Pregnancies were reported, thereby allowing chances that the unknown terminated pregnancies were never reported hence affecting the findings.
The sampling method used during the research requires more administrative work as compare to simple random sampling. This was the case as to why they had to train one of the women to help in offering administrative duties, thereby providing man power.
Depending with the population in question it is a method that is tedious and time consuming to a point where if an individual is not very keen may end up losing important data to for the research. It affected the research in a bad way to a point that some of the women who volunteered for trial were nowhere to be found even during the follow up period.
It is a relative expensive method since required monetary to facilitate it and even paying the individuals taking in its provision.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article was timely in showing an area in the society that is fully observed and given thought about since childhood; the young ones are of great value in the society; thus, observing their health matter was a vital route. Young women in South Africa experience some of the highest incidence rates of HIV infections in the world. The prevalence among women increase rapidly between the teenage years and young adulthood ( Harrison et al, 2015).
The research methods used were not able to bring out the research’s expected outcome; thus, more to be put in, thereby creating interest in learning and knowing more.
The piece leads to a further study in that, now that South Africa is prevalent in HIV cases, what measures have been put in place, what about the younger generations health status. Further research should be done in investigating pathways through which the early pregnancies would increase risks for subsequent HIV infection.
A different method would apply awareness to the population before carrying out the research and not relying on the volunteering personnel only but distributing the entire population. There is the acquisition of samples of every part of their population, leading to better and quality outcomes.
Basing on the individuals who volunteered, the stratified method of analyzing it ensured that at least part of them was represented. This was so because they had better coverage of the selected place with the number of volunteers. It can provide an account of the sampled population.
The article’s weakness is that it used the small population ever since it was based on them that had volunteered, thought to be a small fraction of the entire population.
References
Christofides, N. J., Jewkes, R. K., Dunkle, K. L., Nduna, M., Shai, N. J., & Sterk, C. (2014). Early adolescent pregnancy increases risk of incident HIV infection in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: a longitudinal study. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 17(1), 18585.
Harrison, A., Colvin, C. J., Kuo, C., Swartz, A., & Lurie, M. (2015). Sustained high HIV incidence in young women in Southern Africa: social, behavioral, and structural factors and emerging intervention approaches. Current Hiv/aids Reports, 12(2), 207-215.
Chetty, T., Vandormael, A., Thorne, C., & Coutsoudis, A. (2017). Incident HIV during pregnancy and early postpartum period: a population-based cohort study in a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 17(1), 248.
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