Browsing by Author "Batamwita, Richard"

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    Adolescents Discussing Sexual Behaviors With Key Influencing Audiences
    (Global Journal of Health Science, 2018) Nalukwago, Judith; Crutzen, Rik; Bart, van den Borne; Bukuluki, Paul M.; Bufumbo, Leonard; Batamwita, Richard; Zikusooka, Amos; Thompson, Gretchen; Alaii, Jane
    There is an increasing concern on early initiation of sexual activity among adolescents, increasing sexually transmitted infections, and teenage pregnancy in Uganda. Adolescents perceptions of these sexual behaviors might be the result of discussing sexual and reproductive health issues with key influencing audiences. This study qualitatively explored the effect of sexuality discussions with key influencing audiences by means of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with adolescents (N=83). Findings indicate that adolescence stage comes with changes of intense sexual desires, often presumed difficult to control thus leading adolescents to engage in sexual activities. Adolescents indicated that they were aware of the sexual behaviors such as condom use, contraception use, and multiple concurrent partnerships, but intertwined with persistent myths and misconceptions. Although discussing sexuality issues with someone was found to be instrumental, adolescent highlighted challenges that hinder discussion with key influencers. Challenges include, parents lack of time to talk to their children; some religious affiliations perceived to discourage use of contraception; limited skills of community health workers to address adolescent information needs; meetings held in groups not followed up with age-focused or one-on-one discussions; negative health workers’ attitudes and use of technical language; and peer pressure. These findings suggest the need to provide adequate and updated information to clear any misconceptions and strengthening of key influencers’ communication skills to gain confidence in addressing adolescent sexual and reproductive health needs.
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    Evaluation of the Obulamu? integrated health communication campaign in Uganda: results from a repeated cross-sectional household survey
    (Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 2021) Burke, Holly M.; Okumu, Eunice; Zikusooka, Amos; Batamwita, Richard; Nalukwago, Judith; Field, Samuel; Bernholc, Alissa; Martinez, Andres; Bufumbo, Leonard; Kimbowa, Musa; Coutinho, Sheila M.; Mack, Natasha; Alaii, Jane
    Uganda’s Obulamu? campaign delivered messages relevant to life stage to address evolving health needs of audiences at times they were likely to change behaviors. We estimated Obulamu?’s effects on HIV/AIDS, family planning, maternal and child health, tuberculosis, malaria, and nutrition behavioral outcomes. Methods: We conducted repeated cross-sectional household surveys with women, men, and children’s caregivers in 2015 and 2017 in 16 districts using multi-stage probability sampling weighted by population. Eleven pre-specified outcomes were evaluated in multivariable weighted regression models. Results: Survey 1 included 2,377 households with 4,012 individuals and survey 2 included 2,398 households with 3,563 individuals. After controlling for time and potentially confounding factors, we observed notable increases among people exposed to topicspecific messages in condom use with at least one non-marital, non-cohabiting partner in the last six months; recent male circumcision; seeking tuberculosis screening/testing for self; seeking tuberculosis screening/testing for child; delivery of baby in a facility; and caregiver seeking advice or treatment for child under five years with fever. Exposure did not appear to influence knowledge of antiretroviral therapy, delay sexual debut, breastfeeding infants and all of the household’s pregnant women/children less than five years sleeping under a net the night before the survey. Conclusion: Exposure to topic-specific messages was associated with improvements in six of the eleven outcomes. Across the health priority areas, we observed improvements in select HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health outcomes. We did not observe effects of exposure on select outcomes in the areas of family planning, malaria, or nutrition.
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    Stigma mastery in people living with HIV: gender similarities and theory
    (Journal of Public Health, 2022) Namisi, Charles P.; Munene, John C.; Wanyenze, Rhoda K.; Katahoire, Anne R.; Parkes-Ratanshi, Rosalinda M.; Kentutsi, Stella; Nannyonga, Maria M.; Ssentongo, Robina N.; Ogola, Mabel K.; Nabaggala, Maria S.; Amanya, Geofrey; Kiragga, Agnes N.; Batamwita, Richard; Tumwesigye, Nazarius M.
    Aims This study aimed to determine the prevalence of, factors associated with, and to build a theoretical framework for understanding Internalsed HIV-related Stigma Mastery (IHSM). Methods A cross-sectional study nested within a 2014 Stigma Reduction Cohort in Uganda was used. The PLHIV Stigma Index version 2008, was used to collect data from a random sample of 666 people living with HIV (PLHIV) stratified by gender and age. SPSS24 with Amos27 softwares were used to build a sequential-mediation model. Results The majority of participants were women (65%), aged ≥ 40 years (57%). Overall, IHSM was 45.5% among PLHIV, that increased with age. Specifically, higher IHSM correlated with men and older women “masculine identities” self-disclosure of HIV-diagnosis to family, sharing experiences with peers. However, lower IHSM correlated with feminine gender, the experience of social exclusion stress, fear of future rejection, and fear of social intimacy. Thus, IHSMsocial exclusion with its negative effects and age-related cognition are integrated into a multidimensional IHSM theoretical framework with a good model-to-data fit. Conclusion Internalised HIV-related Stigma Mastery is common among men and older women. Specificially, “masculine identities” self-disclose their own HIV-positive diagnosis to their family, share experiences with peers to create good relationships for actualising or empowerment in stigma mastery. However, social exclusion exacerbates series of negative effects that finally undermine stigma mastery by young feminine identities. Thus, stigma mastery is best explained by an integrated empowerment framework, that has implications for future practice, policy, and stigma-related research that we discuss.