1. New Population Policy and Prevalence of HIV in Iran: with special attention to Condom Khadijeh Asadi Sarvestani HN
Introduction
Due to the dramatic decline in population growth, Iranian policy makers are changing policies regarding the population and family planning program in order to improve the fertility rate. One part of this policy is limited access to modern contraceptive in terms of both device and consultation. This new policy can affect the rate of HIV/AIDS.
Results
The results of study showed that Male Condom was used by only 16% of couples in Shiraz City and 6% in rural areas. Although the rate of Male Condom in comparison to other countries such as Japan and China was low, it is the second most popular modern contraception method. In addition, findings reveal that 54.9 % of couples in Shiraz City and 22.4% of couples in rural areas get Condom from governmental health centers for free.
Conclusions
Condom can play a vital role in decreasing the rate of HIV/AIDS. However, based on our results, the rate of using Male Condom is low. This rate was in a situation that couples could get Condom for free from governmental health centers. As a result, limited access to modern contraceptives can decline the prevalence of Condom usage. In more details, many couples particularly from low economic category may ignore Condom due to its cost. Moreover, in spite of the cost, in some rural areas there is no pharmacy for providing Condom that this can be considered as another contributing factor in decline of Condom usage. Consequently, if new population policies do not give enough attention to productive health, they can lead to some problems such as decline of Condom usage, increase of HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and etc.
Methods
The method of this research was quantitative. The participants were women in productive age ( year) who were living in Shiraz City and rural areas around it. Data were collected from 500 women by semi- close questionnaire. Then the data were analyzed in SPSS-22 software.
The 2nd International Congress on HIV/AIDS; Women & Children Dec 2015, Shiraz, Iran