1.2 Objectives of the study
The main purpose of this study is to depict a comprehensive picture of information need and resource utilization by people living with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu. The specific purposes of the study are as follows:
a. To determine the areas in which people living with HIV/AIDS needs information ESUT teaching Hospital.
b. To find out the information resource used by people living with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
c. To determine the extent to which information resources encourage and support the people living with HIV/AIDS to take positive actions to deal with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
d. To determine the benefits derived from the use of information resources by the PLWHA in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
e. To find out the barriers to access and utilization of information resources by PLWHA in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
Information needs and resource utilization by people living with hiv/aids
1. INFORMATION NEEDS AND RESOURCE UTILIZATION
BY PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV-AIDS
Background of the study
Managing information is an important part of coping with
illness and includes communicative and cognitive activities
seeking, avoiding, providing, appraising, and interpreting
information. It is complex in that people’s information needs
and behavior vary over the course of their illness and along
with the availability and quality of information. In recent years,
considerable research has been done on how people living with
Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (PLWHIV/AIDS) manage information. However,
2. understanding of the role of information in the HIV/AIDS in
ESUT Teaching Hospital, Park lane is still limited, because of
the difficulties of reaching different groups of PLWHA.
This study has been designed to reach many segments of
the diverse HIV/AIDS community and broaden under standing
of how information can better assist PLWHA.
Information can be regarded as a resource that can
liberate man. Osuala (2001) refers to information as facts and
opinions provided and received during the course of life. A
person using such facts generate more information some of
which is communicate to others during discussion, by letters,
symbols, etc. Aniogbolu, (2008) noted that most information
users need information for problem solving, current awareness
and recreational purpose. According to Aniogbolu (2008), the
importance of information utilization by man to his
development is becoming more meaningful to him as his
information accumulation ability’s is taking a new dimension
3. with the development of highly sophisticated information
technology (Aniogbolu, Anyaobi & Olise, 2010).
Information needs is often understood as vague awareness
of something missing and culminating in locating information
that contributes to understanding and meaning (Kuhlthau,
2009). Belkin, Brooks and Oddy. (2008) in their part saw
information needs as a gap in individual’s knowledge in sense
making situations. Accessibility to the right information is
necessary for the general well being of the individual,
institution or organization.
One of the most devastating sources of our time is
HIV/AIDS; undoubtedly HIV/AIDS presents a major challenge
to human development in Nigeria. Ojoawo, (2006) apart from
poverty, no problem has given Nigeria a more daunting
challenge than the present battle with HIV/AIDS. AIDS in
indeed devastating Nigerian communities and poses a real
threat to poverty reduction effort and the achievement of the
United Nation Millennium Development Goals, (UNMDG).
4. Indeed HIV/AIDS presents a serious challenge to Human
Development in Nigeria because the exact cause of and spread
of the epidemic is still very difficult to calculate.
In Nigeria, the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in 1986.
The infection rate has however, grown exponentially. Since
then, by June 1999, the Federal Ministry of Health, (FMOH) in
Nigeria had recorded 26,276 AIDS cases. Due to fear of
stigmatization several cases are not reported through the
hospitals, which mean the reported cases were gross under
estimations of the rate of occurrence of the epidemic. The
National AIDS/STDS Control Progremmes (NASCP) of FMOH
estimated that the calculated number of AIDS cases would
have reached 590,000 by the end of 1999 (Ojoawo, 2006).
Currently Nigeria has become the first country in Africa to
cross the critical epidemiological threshold of 5%. In fact, it has
since been projected that by the 2009 in the absence of major
changes in sexual behavior and other control measures, the
number of people living with HIV would reach 5 million, of the
5. 40 million people identified to be living with the disease, 3.5
million is the estimated number for Nigerian. This amounts to
10% of the 40 million people infected worldwide
(UNAIDS/WHO/UNICEF, 2002). In a country like Nigeria, with
limited public capacity and resources to combat the problem,
the prevalence rate is 80 high that the HIV virus is infecting
more than 30 people a day, and the disease is growing faster
that the authorities’ response to it. The prevalence report in
Nigeria revealed that there is no community in Nigeria with
zero prevalence (FMOH, 2009).
Ukwuoma (2008) noted that in 2003 and 2008 National
Antenatal HIV Seroprevalence survey in Enugu State recorded
the prevalence rate in both 2003 and 2008 as 4.9% and 5.1%
respectively.
People living with HIV/AIDS need information to survive.
As a matter of fact, information is vital in the daily life of the
people living with HIV/AIDS.
6. It is a medium of social transformation and
communication and an avenue for them (people living with
HIV/AIDS) to get involved in government programmes and
policies about HIV/AIDS. Therefore, good access to information
becomes a must for PLWHA. It is therefore, necessary to
consider the information needs of people living with HIV/AIDS
as well as their information resources. This study sought to
investigate the information needs and resource utilization by
PLWHA. Using ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu as
study setting.
ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu is situated at
GRA Enugu North Local Government. It is a reference center
for comprehensive treatment and support of people living with
HIV/AIDS.
1.1 Statement of the problem
The cause of the disease HIV/AIDS, allover the world,
relates to individual social behavior such as casual sex, intra
venous drugs use (FMOH, 2008). In Nigeria however, the
7. leading driving force of the spread of the HIV infection includes
low level of education, high level of ignorance, cultural
practices that encourage multiple sexual partner such as
polygamy and concubine, poverty and lack of access to
appropriate reproductive health survives and information
particularly the illiterate and young people. The practice of
traditional surgery such as bloodletting procedures with
unsterilized instrument on infertile women, and non
observance of infection control procedures by traditional birth
attendants who are heavily patronized in Nigeria, may all be
responsible for spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Other factors blamed for the spread of the epidemic are
the other cultural practices that expose people to unsterilized
sharp objects used for body scarification and circumcision, the
subordinate role of women and their attendant vulnerability
which prevents them from negotiating safe sex, ignorance,
stigma and discrimination, poverty, illiteracy and the non
chalant attitude of some individuals.
8. In spite of various efforts at both domestic and
international levels, Nigeria’s situation seems not to translate
to any reliable cheering news about HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is
becoming more of a developmental problem than just a health
problem. The problem constitutes a major challenge to
sustainable human development in Nigeria, which must be a
concern for all.
Lack of information resources, lack of awareness of the
existence of information resources by the people living with
HIV/AIDS, Non-utilization of the available resources by the
people living with HIV/AIDS, High level of illiteracy among
people living with HIV/AIDS, lack of skilled man power to
appropriately organize that available resources in ESUT
Teaching Hospital Library for easy accessibility and retrieval by
people living with HIV/AIDS are the major problems faced by
the PLWHA in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
This study focuses on the information needs and resource
utilization by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The case
9. study is ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu. The
following are the problems facing PLWHA
a. Emptiness: Most people living with HIV/AIDS feel they
are empty vessels immediately they have been diagnosed
as being HIV positive. The feeling that they have nothing
to offer to the society also makes them feel empty and
useless. They consequently develop an inferiority complex
which worsens their condition. They become helpless.
b. Absence of Counseling: Most people living with HIV/AIDS
who know their status were not given pre-test counseling
and as such were not prepared psychologically. This
affects the psychological well being of the people living
with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), thereby leading to depression.
Counseling is important to people living with HIV/AIDS.
With counseling, which is supposed to be on-going
process, PLWHA gain and demonstrate courage. Lack of
counseling services in our hospitals is greatly affecting
PLWHA. Even hospitals that have trained counselors do
10. not offer appropriate counseling services and are not
committed to work.
c. Lack of Family Support: Experience has shown that
some family members abandon and sometimes isolate
PLWHA on the grounds that they have tested positive to
HIV. This is largely due to lack of awareness in our
families such attitudes lead to suspicious among PLWHA.
This eventually leads to untimely death in most PLWHA.
Hence PLWHA to believe that it is better to die than to live.
There is also little or no family support to give hope to
PLWHA in most homes.
d. Stigma: This is one of the most subtle and debilitating
challenges faced by PLWHA. It inhibits open, honest
communication between them and others. Stigma makes
the disclosure of the disease by PLWHA within the family
difficult. Without disclosure, prevention and care are
almost impossible, families and communities are deeply
intertwined in the African context and should therefore be
11. supported in preventing stigmatization. This will also
promote better self esteem among PLWHA with respect to
their careers. It will also eliminate the vicious cycle of self-
stigmatization. People living with HIV/AIDS face stigma in
the home, in the health care setting, in the religious
sector, while the mass media can as well unintentionally
promote stigma, though they have potential to shape the
attitude, values and perception of a large member of
people.
e. Human Rights Violation: Existing human rights
instruments confirm that discrimination against PLWHA
or those thought to be infected is a violation of their
human rights. This is a great challenge facing PLWHA.
f. Discrimination: The acts of stigma constitute
discrimination based on presumed or actual HIV positive
status constitute discrimination based on presumed or
actual HIV positive status and violates human rights due
to the stigma associated with the rights of PLWHA. This
12. situation intensifies the negative impact of the epidemic.
At the individual level, for example, it causes undue
anxiety and distress which by themselves contribute to ill-
health. At the level of family and community, it causes
people to feel ashamed and to conceal their link with the
epidemic, as well as withdraw from participation in more
positive social functions. At the level of society,
discrimination against PLWHA reinforces the mistaken
belief that such action is acceptable and that those
infected with HIV/AIDS should be ostracized and blamed.
This is a great challenge to PLWHA.
Around the world too there have been numerous instances
of HIV/AIDS related cases of discrimination. People with HIV or
those believed to have HIV/AIDS have been:
- Segregated in schools and hospitals, and placed under
cruel and degrading conductions. Cases of degrading
treatment have often been reported in prisons where
13. inmates are often without basic needs, including access to
medical care.
- Refused employment
- Denied the right to marry
- Reflected by community
- Killed because of their sero positive status.
- Required when returning to their home country to present
themselves for an HIV test. Individuals have being denied
the right to return to their country on suspicion of being
HIV positive. Others have been denied visa and entry
permissions.
In conclusion therefore, continuous advocacy campaigns
are needed in response to the challenges faced by PLWHA and
to bring about social change. All hand must be on desk to
tackle the challenges facing PLWHA. To win the war against
HIV/AIDS, PLWHA must be used as agents of change in the
society.
14. 1.2 Objectives of the study
The main purpose of this study is to depict a
comprehensive picture of information need and resource
utilization by people living with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching
Hospital Park lane, Enugu. The specific purposes of the study
are as follows:
a. To determine the areas in which people living with
HIV/AIDS needs information ESUT teaching Hospital.
b. To find out the information resource used by people living
with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane,
Enugu.
c. To determine the extent to which information resources
encourage and support the people living with HIV/AIDS to
take positive actions to deal with HIV/AIDS in ESUT
Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
15. d. To determine the benefits derived from the use of
information resources by the PLWHA in ESUT Teaching
Hospital Park lane, Enugu.
e. To find out the barriers to access and utilization of
information resources by PLWHA in ESUT Teaching Hospital
Park lane, Enugu.
1.3 Scope of the study
This study is limited to ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane,
Enugu, it investigates the information needs and resources
utilization by people living with HIV/AIDS. The research wants to
measure the following variables: the areas in which people living
with HIV/AIDS need information, the extent to which information
resources encourage and support the people living with
HIV/AIDS, to take positive actions to deal with the HIV/AIDS, the
information resources used by PLWHA, the benefits derived from
the use of information resources by the PLWHA, and the barriers
to access and utilization of information resources by PLWHA.
1.4 Significance of the study
16. The significance of this study will be appreciated for the
following reasons:
It will accentuate public education and dissemination of
information to reduce the stigmatization of persons assumed to
be at risk of HIV/AIDS.
This study will also be important because it will provide
psychological and social support to people living with HIV/AIDS.
They should never be abandoned or treated as social outcasts.
The study is important because it will explore the necessary
of the political action, that is social workers, individuals,
community to participate with other groups to lobby at the state
and federal level on behalf of PLWHA in order to improve their
quality of life, protect their civil rights or liberty and to advocates
for increased funding for appropriate education, prevention,
intervention, treatment services and research.
The study will also serve as database for policy makers in
the area of HIV/AIDS.
17. The findings of the study will help the government improve
the scope and efficiency of its information systems and services
where necessary to encourage maximum utilization by PLWHA.
It will serve as an information base for future scholars in the
area.
Finally, it is hoped that the study will help policy makers,
health care providers, health workers, information providers,
library and information professionals, and other stakeholders in
health sectors to respond positively to the information needs of
PLWHA by identifying such needs and exploring avenues to
improving will help the PLWHA to be aware of what is available
for them, and perhaps make effective use of the available
information resources for enhance health condition.
1.5 Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study:
a. To determine the areas in which people living with
HIV/AIDS needs information ESUT teaching Hospital?
18. b. To find out the information resource used by people living
with HIV/AIDS in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane,
Enugu?
c. To what extent do people living with HIV/AIDS seek and
share information and what type of resources do they use in
sharing and seeking information in ESUT Teaching Hospital
Park lane, Enugu?
d. What impact has HIV information had on the lives of PLWHA
and on basic demography in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park
lane, Enugu?
e. What are the barriers to getting HIV information by PLWHA
in ESUT Teaching Hospital Park lane, Enugu?
1.6 Operational definition of research concepts
The following research concepts are defined according to the
way and manner the researcher used in this research work.
i. Information Need: It is defined as an individual or groups
desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious
or unconscious need.
19. ii. Resource utilization: This is the proper use of available
information and library resources by people living with
HIV/AIDS in respect to their health status.
iii. HIV: This means Human Immune deficiency Virus.
iv. AIDS: Stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
v. PLWHA: Stand for People Living with HIV/AIDS.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The university was established as a non residential multi-
campus institution. On establishment, the university which was
conceived on a presidential model after Harvard University made
impressive landmarks and stamped its name as the first
University of Technology and first state University of Nigeria.
In 1991, following the creation of Enugu State from old
Anambra State the new government change name from
ASUTECH to ESUT.
Until 2005 when it was relocated to Parklane Enugu and
named ESUT college of Medical/Teaching Hospital.