USE OF LOGISTIC REGRESSION IN ASSESSING RISK FACTORS OF HIV/AIDS IN NORTH CENTRAL ZONE OF NIGERIA

This article assessed risk factors of HIV reported in the National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS) 2007.It was planned to determine risk factors that could be used to predict and control the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in North Central zone of Nigeria. This was done through the method of logistic regression. To this end, a subset of national data from the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) on HIV and reproductive health were used. The risk factors assessed include location, education, religion, marital status, gender and age which were eventually broken down into twenty one variables. The appropriateness of the logistic regression models obtained was also assessed by pseudo R-squared. The variables adjudged significant in the final model included Age 30-39, 40-49; Qu’ranic, Primary, Secondary, and Higher education; Islam religion; currently married; and rural dweller. Of these, education was found to be dominant factor. It was then concluded that Education, Age, Marital Status and Location but not Gender and Religion be used to model the control of HIV prevalence in the North Central zone of Nigeria