THE TREND OF HIV/AIDS RELATED MORTALITY AMONG PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA: USING A VERBAL AUTOPSY METHOD

Abstract

Background: It is widely argued that school teachers in sub-Saharan Africa are being affected and will continue to be affected by the AIDS epidemic. Teachers are considered a high-risk group with respect to HIV/AIDS, particularly in high prevalence countries, where the epidemic has   devastating impact on teaching profession

Objective: the aim of this study was to examine the trends of mortality among primary and secondary school teachers in Addis Ababa during this era of HIV/AIDS.

Methods: Community and school based longitudinal study /verbal autopsy data on deceased teachers of 8 years or from Non.2005-Oct.2013 / was conducted. The data were obtained from family members or care givers of 146 deceased teachers.

Each completed verbal autopsy questionnaire was reviewed by two physicians independently. When assigned causes for deaths of teachers by two physicians were not in agreement, then the cases were given to a third physician/Internist/. Cases with inconsistent causes of deaths by three physicians were labeled as “undetermined”. Extended Mntel-Haenszel Chi-square for linear trend was used to check the significance of the trend by using SPSS software version 20.

Results: The trend of total and HIV-related mortality among teachers declined from 45 (31%) to 22(15.2%) and 15(10.3%) to 4(2.7%) during the first two years /Nov.2005-Oct.2007/ and the last two years /Nov.2011- Oct.2013/of the study period, respectively. Similarly, the proportionate mortality ratio between the total and HIV/AIDS related mortality declined from 0.33 to 0.18 during the corresponding period. The decline in the HIV/AIDS related mortality was statistically significant with Mantel Haenszel Chi-square=7.04(P<0.01).

Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate a statistically significant decline in total and HIV/AIDS related mortality among teachers in Ethiopia. However, we suggest nationwide study on the impact of HIV/AIDS in the education sector for more representative data and better interventions.

Keywords:  Primary and Secondary, Schools, Teachers, Trend, Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Ethiopia