Employees' knowledge, attitudes and practices around HIV/AIDS at Rosh Pinah Zinc Mine, Namibia.
Date
2010-11-15
Authors
Rukambe, Zelda
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Abstract
The spread of HIV/AIDS continues to increase, despite efforts committed globally,
regionally and nationally to curb the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (UNAIDS,
2009). Organisations are becoming more aware of the threat of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
and as a result many today commit resources towards managing HIV/AIDS in the
workplace through HIV/AIDS programmes. The question remains as to whether such
efforts will be effective. A Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices/ Behaviour (KAPB) study
is one of the tools that can be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of an
HIV/AIDS programme. Companies that have conducted a Knowledge, Attitude, Practice
and Behaviour (KAPB) study within its workforce have found it to be a very useful
practice for the development, as well as for the monitoring and evaluation, of HIV
programmes (Price Waterhouse Coopers, 2007). An exploratory research design using a
mixed-design approach was employed to investigate the existing knowledge, attitudes
and practices related to HIV/AIDS by the workforce at the Rosh Pinah Zink Mine
Corporation in Namibia. A Maasdorp (2008) standardised questionnaire was used to
obtain both quantitative and qualitative information from the respondents. In addition to a
small scale survey, qualitative data was collected by means of a focus group to
supplement mainly quantitative questionnaire data. The questionnaire was piloted at a
company in Windhoek that operates similarly to Rosh Pinah Mine. The mixture of both
approaches can compliment and supplement one another on the weakness of each
approach. In this way the researcher was able to gain a deeper understanding of the
research problem (Punch, 2004). A stratified sample comprising of 123 out of 561
employees across the mine workforce served as respondents, while seven employees
served as respondents in the focus group discussion. The information collected by means
of the survey was subjected to both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, while the
focus group transcripts were thematically analysed.
The results of the study are intended to provide an understanding of the existing
knowledge, attitudes and practices of the workforce with regards to HIV/AIDS. The
study arrived at recommendations for the occupational social workers, as well as for planners of HIV/AIDS programmes at the mine in order to address identified gaps with
regards to HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes and practices of the employees. Secondly, the
study arrived at baseline information that may be used to monitor the impact of
HIV/AIDS workplace programmes being implemented thereafter. This study provided
the basis for a follow-up study that will compare findings of workers who have been
exposed to the proposed intervention.