TB/HIV risk factors identified from a General Household Survey of South Africa in 2006

The level of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis (TB) as well as the co-infection TB/HIV in South Africa is among the highest in the world. TB is curable while HIV is not, yet the combination of both is a growing feature in the world. This study examined TB and HIV affecting people living in South Africa. Analyses have been undertaken based on data from the General Household Survey of South Africa in 2006. The study focused on respondents aged 15-49 years, corresponding to a total of 55,384 people composed of 25,859 males and 29,525 females. Among this population, 5935 people suffered from illness/injury, including 2469 (41.6%) males and 3466 (58.4%) females. Weighted multivariate logistic regression is performed on TB and/or HIV in association with the province, background characteristics of the target population, and selected socioeconomic and demographic variables included in the survey. In this study we focus on variables of health status and whether subjects suffered from TB and/or HIV. Findings of this investigation show that TB is the second most common cause of illness in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal (KN) (9.1%), North West (5.4%) and Limpopo (4.2%). People who are married have a 50% lower risk compared to those currently not married to suffer from TB and/or HIV. Those with living spouses have a 5% lower risk to suffer from TB and/or HIV than those whose partners are not alive. This study concluded that rapid action is needed to curb the spread of TB and/or HIV to produce a healthy population. Therefore, follow-up care and special preventative measures are urgently needed in provinces with higher reported rates of TB and/or HIV such as KN.