The Relationship Between The Prevalence of HIV/AIDS And Associated Socioeconomic And Behavioral Factors

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are a global epidemic affecting almost 40 million people. Studies show that the spread of HIV is associated with numerous and complex factors such as poverty, religious beliefs, hygiene practices, and gender inequalities. I analyzed the relationship between the prevalence of HIV and four socioeconomic and behavioral factors: per capita Gross Domestic Product, the Globalization Index, the Social Institutions and Gender Index, and literacy rates. I used logistic regression to regress the log-odds of becoming infected with HIV against the four associated factors and calculated an odds ratio for each factor, and determined the effect of continent and GDP range on HIV prevalence through one-way and two-way ANOVAs. The results exhibit strong inverse relationships between HIV prevalence and each factor, and show that there is significant variability between continents