An assessment of community readiness for HIV/AIDS preventive interventions in rural Bangladesh

Efforts to prevent HIV from becoming widespread among the youth population 15-24 years in Bangladesh are in the early stages. However, conservative religious and cultural norms may curtail the dissemination of needed information about sexuality and condoms. The community-readiness stages model was adopted as a framework for assessing the level of preparedness of community leaders to facilitate planned HIV prevention efforts. Six focus group discussions with three professional groups (teachers, businessmen, drugshop vendors) in Hobiganj district were conducted in late 2005, and a single multi-professional group made up of teachers, imams, and drugshop vendors was convened in early 2007 to assess changes. The audio recordings in Bangla were coded as were English translations. Everyone had heard of AIDS and regarded…