Volume 20 - Article 6 | Pages 65–96

Overestimating HIV infection:: The construction and accuracy of subjective probabilities of HIV infection in rural Malawi

By Philip Anglewicz, Hans-Peter Kohler

Print this page  Facebook  Twitter

 

 
Date received:07 May 2007
Date published:10 Feb 2009
Word count:8149
Keywords:HIV/AIDS, perceived risk, sub-Saharan Africa
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2009.20.6
 

Abstract

In the absence of HIV testing, how do rural Malawians assess their HIV status? In this paper, we use a unique dataset that includes respondents’ HIV status as well as their subjective likelihood of HIV infection. These data show that many rural Malawians overestimate their likelihood of current HIV infection. The discrepancy between actual and perceived status raises an important question: Why are so many wrong? We begin by identifying determinants of self-assessed HIV status, and then compare these assessments with HIV biomarker results. Finally, we ask what characteristics of individuals are associated with errors in self-assessments.

Author's Affiliation

Philip Anglewicz - Johns Hopkins University, United States of America [Email]
Hans-Peter Kohler - University of Pennsylvania, United States of America [Email]

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

» Marital dissolutions and changes in mental health: Evidence from rural Malawi
Volume 44 - Article 41

» Shocks and migration in Malawi
Volume 38 - Article 14

» The population-level impact of public-sector antiretroviral therapy rollout on adult mortality in rural Malawi
Volume 36 - Article 37

» Intergenerational Transfers in the Era of HIV/AIDS: Evidence from Rural Malawi
Volume 27 - Article 27

» HIV/AIDS and time allocation in rural Malawi
Volume 24 - Article 27

» The Likoma Network Study: Context, data collection and initial results
Volume 21 - Article 15

» Subjective expectations in the context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi
Volume 20 - Article 31

» The Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project 2004-06: Data collection, data quality, and analysis of attrition
Volume 20 - Article 21

» A summary of Special Collection 1: Social Interactions and HIV/AIDS in Rural Africa
Volume 9 - Article 12

» The Fertility Pattern of Twins and the General Population Compared: Evidence from Danish Cohorts 1945-64
Volume 6 - Article 14

» Tempo-Adjusted Period Parity Progression Measures: Assessing the Implications of Delayed Childbearing for Cohort Fertility in Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain
Volume 6 - Article 7

» Tempo-Adjusted Period Parity Progression Measures, Fertility Postponement and Completed Cohort Fertility
Volume 6 - Article 6

» Attrition in Longitudinal Household Survey Data: Some Tests for Three Developing-Country Samples
Volume 5 - Article 4

» Frailty Modelling for Adult and Old Age Mortality: The Application of a Modified DeMoivre Hazard Function to Sex Differentials in Mortality
Volume 3 - Article 8

» Empirical Assessments of Social Networks, Fertility and Family Planning Programs: Nonlinearities and their Implications
Volume 3 - Article 7

» Gender Preferences for Children in Europe: Empirical Results from 17 FFS Countries
Volume 2 - Article 1

» Introduction to "Research on Demographic Aspects of HIV/AIDS in Rural Africa"
Special Collection 1 - Article 1

» Talking about AIDS: The influence of communication networks on individual risk perceptions of HIV/AIDS infection and favored protective behaviors in South Nyanza District, Kenya
Special Collection 1 - Article 13

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

» Why are they worried? Concern about AIDS in rural Malawi
Special Collection 1 - Article 9    | Keywords: HIV/AIDS, perceived risk, sub-Saharan Africa

» Physical attractiveness and women’s HIV risk in rural Malawi
Volume 37 - Article 10    | Keywords: HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa

» Sexual networks, partnership mixing, and the female-to-male ratio of HIV infections in generalized epidemics: An agent-based simulation study
Volume 33 - Article 15    | Keywords: HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa

» When the group encourages extramarital sex: Difficulties in HIV/AIDS prevention in rural Malawi
Volume 28 - Article 30    | Keywords: HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa

» An inquiry into the uneven distribution of women’s HIV infection in rural Malawi
Volume 25 - Article 28    | Keywords: HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa