In spite of large regional differences, the HIV epidemic in Central and South America has shown a stable pattern over the last decade. In the majority of countries in the region, the epidemic is concentrated and remains at a low level.1,2 Among men who have sex with men (MSM), prevalence stands at around 10% in most countries, though heterosexual transmission of HIV has increased, particularly in South America.3

There is little information on the epidemiology of HIV in Bolivia is available. Surveillance data indicate that 4889 HIV cases were reported from 1984 to 2009; 89% of which came from La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.4 In 2009, it was estimated there were 12,000 [range 9000–16,000] persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the estimated prevalence in the population aged 15–49 years was 0.2% [95% CI: 0.1–0.3%].5 The HIV epidemic in Bolivia is concentrated in the MSM group.5–7 In the department of Chuquisaca according with the Departmental Health Service (SEDES-Chuquisaca) data report of 2010 (unpublished result), only 27 new HIV cases were reported in 2010; 78% were residents of Sucre, but no HIV prevalence estimates in the general population are available.

Studies on knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) have been widely used to design public health policies and for planning health interventions taking into account the needs of the community.8,9 There is limited information on KAP on HIV/AIDS among the general population of Bolivia, a multicultural nation with great ethnic diversity and marked socio-economic inequalities. Therefore, the aims of this study were to analyse knowledge on HIV/AIDS, as well as attitudes and practices with respect to HIV/AIDS and to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection among inhabitants aged 15–49 years residing in the town of Sucre (department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia) in 2008–2009.

We conducted a cross-sectional population-based study consisting of a KAP survey linked to a sero-survey using Whatman paper to estimate HIV prevalence. Inclusion criteria were subjects aged 15–49 years who had resided in Sucre during the preceding 12 months and consented to participate, excluding those who had some mental disability or refused to participate in the study. Sample size calculations were based on an expected prevalence of HIV-related knowledge of 12%, based on a previous study developed by the Simon Bolivar Andean University (UASB) with UNAIDS on 2006 (unpublished result), with a 95% confidence level, and a precision of 2%. Separate sample size calculations were made for the estimation of the HIV prevalence in Sucre as the prevalence of HIV was expected to be low. For an expected HIV prevalence of 1%, with a 95% confidence level, and an absolute precision of 0.5%, the necessary sample size was 1500 subjects. Due to budgetary constrictions, the HIV determinations could only be done in 1000 persons with the inevitable loss of precision. Subjects were randomly selected within each of the urban and rural districts of Sucre, with a proportional allocation to the respective district populations. Since there are no population-based registries in Sucre, we used the address records kept by Health Centres, selected homes at random, and then interviewed the first person in the household who fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria, with a maximum of one person being interviewed per dwelling.

Data were collected by personal interviews conducted by trained interviewers, followed by the extraction of a blood specimen. Interviewers (fourth-year students attending the Faculty of Medicine at San Francisco Xavier of Chuquisaca University, and physicians and nurses at health centres coming under the aegis of the Ministry of Health) underwent one month's training and were additionally required to speak Quechua, the native language. The survey was administered personally, lasted approximately 25min, and was conducted from September 2008 to March 2009. No survey response rate was formally recorded, though acceptance was good and none of the persons who were offered the blood test refused to participate. It was only for budgetary reasons that blood tests were conducted in only 998 persons, 67% of the total number of interviewees.

The questionnaire was made up of five sections: (a) sociodemographic characteristics; (b) knowledge about modes of HIV/AIDS transmission; (c) attitudes and practices with respect to HIV/AIDS; (d) clinical history of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and/or HIV/AIDS; and (e) other risk factors related to HIV/AIDS. Data collected in the questionnaire were used to construct the KAP indicators, based on the recommendations of the Basic Indicators of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, (UNAIDS) and applied to the epidemic situation in Bolivia.10,11

A total of 1499 persons, 614 men and 885 women, were interviewed. Table 1 shows their sociodemographic characteristics by gender showing significant differences; with more male residents in urban areas and more female residents in rural areas. Broken down by marital status, 60% were single (mainly men). No age-related differences were found between men and women. While most of the population had a medium/high educational level (secondary/university), the percentage that had scarcely completed their primary education was higher among women than among men (15% vs. 7%). There were gender-related differences by language and income; more women spoke “Spanish and Quechua” or only Quechua and more women reported lower monthly family incomes.

Inadequate knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention mechanisms and the discriminatory attitudes towards persons with HIV are very frequent in Sucre in spite of relatively low prevalence of unsafe sex behaviour and a very low prevalence of HIV infection. Moreover, indicators of knowledge, attitudes and practices on HIV/AIDS display important differences according to gender, ethnic and socio-economic origin, and urban versus rural residence.

The prevalence of HIV in the general population aged 15–49 in Sucre was 0.0% (95% CI: 0.0–0.37) and is lower than the prevalence estimated by UNAIDS in 2010 for the general population of the same age in Bolivia, namely, 0.2% (95% CI: 0.1–0.34). These data rank Sucre as one of the regions with the lowest estimated prevalence in South America.3

Prevalence of inadequate knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention mechanisms in Sucre is high; 65% in men and 69% in women. Furthermore, risk factors differ by gender. Although inadequate knowledge is more frequent in rural areas and among Quechua-speakers of both genders, among women it is additionally associated with a low educational and socio-economic level, highlighting their vulnerability. The prevalence of inadequate knowledge observed by our study is lower than that reported by previous studies conducted in Bolivia. The study developed in Chuquisaca by the UASB with UNAIDS on 2006 (unpublished result) also used the UNAIDS indicators and estimated the prevalence of inadequate knowledge as being 88% in rural areas, mostly Quechua-speaking, in the department of Chuquisaca, and data furnished by the most recent (2008) Bolivian National Demographic & Health Survey12 estimated inadequate knowledge of modes of HIV transmission among persons aged 15–49 as being 76% in men and 78% in women. Apart from methodological differences in the instruments for measuring and selecting the sample, these discrepancies may be due to the higher mean educational level of persons who answered our survey given that Sucre is a university city with a large number of residential students. Our study's findings are comparable to those of the 2008 El Salvador National Family Health Survey,13 which describes inadequate knowledge of HIV as 66% among persons aged 15–49 and 63% among aged 15–24 but suggests higher levels of inadequate knowledge than other countries. In Brazil, inadequate knowledge of HIV was estimated at 39% and 43% in 2005.14,15 It is noteworthy that, as in El Salvador, inadequate knowledge was higher in rural women with low educational and socio-economic levels, and that, as in Brazil,16 in persons with lower education level. Finally, while there are other studies on knowledge and practices with respect to HIV/AIDS in Latin America, their results are not comparable to ours, since they were not conducted on the general population.16,17

The prevalence of attitudes of discrimination and stigmatisation towards persons living with HIV/AIDS in this study was very high, 85%, being higher in the rural area, a prevalence similar to those reported in the Simon Bolivar Andean University (UASB)-UNAIDS study (2006) (unpublished result). In our study, persons with a low socio-economic level displayed the most pronounced attitudes of rejection; this is important to be considered when designing preventive strategies as it has been acknowledged that attitudes of stigmatisation and discrimination towards PLWHA reduce the effectiveness of programmes and services.18

The prevalence of unsafe sexual risk practices was relatively low, 10%, and was higher in men than in women. These figures are lower than those from Brazil,15 where unsafe sex in the general population aged 15–54 were 41% in women and 33% in men. In our study, there were no significant differences in the rural area for any of the variables, in line with the findings of the UASB-UNAIDS study in the rural area of Chuquisaca. In the urban area, however, women reported a significantly lower prevalence of unsafe sex than men, and adolescents and young adults reported more frequent unsafe sex practices than older adults aged 25–49. A study conducted in Brazil15 reported that persons aged 40–54 had higher prevalence of unsafe sex than adolescents and young adults. In our study, 22% of the population had initiated sexual relations before the age of 15 years, though this was commoner in men than in women. This percentage was higher than that reported by the 2008 Bolivian National Demographic & Health Survey.12 Compared to other countries in the region, the age of initiation of sexual relations in Bolivia is higher.16

One of the limitations of this study is not having the response rate since no data were gathered to calculate it. Another limitation is the loss of relative precision in the estimation of HIV prevalence due to the restricted sample size, nevertheless the absolute precision is still low and our result is consistent with previous studies that have reported low HIV prevalence in Bolivia. Since no optimal sampling framework was available, random sampling was not strictly fulfilled due to the difficulties of reaching subjects in the rural area. An effort was also made to minimise information bias, by rendering the survey anonymous, ensuring interviewers were of the same gender as interviewees, and indicating beforehand that nothing subjects might say would be judged, and that it was hoped they would reply as honestly as possible as results would be useful, not only for themselves but also for many other persons. All these helped create a climate of trust and reduce information bias, though underreporting of sexual risk behaviours motivated by the need to give socially acceptable replies cannot be ruled out.

In conclusion this is the first study to analyse knowledge, attitudes and sexual practices with respect to HIV/AIDS and prevalence of HIV infection among the general population of Sucre, Bolivia. The results of this study that highlight profound and unfair differences by gender, ethnic and socio-economic origin, and urban versus rural residence should allow to design policies that take into account ethnic, intercultural, regional and gender-related realities, aligned with current national community and intercultural health policy as to provide an adequate response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Bolivia.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.