Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and HIV Infection in Rural People of Three Districts of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The socioeconomic condition, nutritional status makes a complex relationship on the risk of HIV infections and also the progression of the infection in the body. The differentiationin disease progressionamong males and femaleswas little understood in the rural settings of West Bengal. A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the impact of nutritional status in terms of body mass index and socioeconomic status (SES) on HIV infection status among the people of three districts of Jangalmahal areas of West Bengal. The study was conducted in the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, Midnapore. The socioeconomic status of the participants was collected through a questionnaire method and height and weight were measured to determine the nutritional status of the HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals. The highest numbers of HIV-positive individuals were found in the age group of =35 years in both sexes. Unemployed males and females had 3.91 and 1.28 times greater chance of being HIV infected. It was observed that the risk of HIV infection was associated with low education (P<0.01), low family income (P<0.001) and low socio-economic condition (P<0.001) among the female and occupational condition (P<0.01) of the male. The study shows some indicators of SES were related to HIV infection.