How Does the Impact of an HIV/AIDS Information Campaign Vary with Educational Attainment? Evidence from Rural Uganda

The responsiveness to information is thought to be one channel through which education affects health outcomes. This paper tests this hypothesis by examining the effectiveness of an information campaign that aims at preventing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Previous studies in the epidemiological literature have generally concluded that, in Africa, there was either a positive or no association between HIV infection and schooling levels. Using individual level data from a cohort study following the general population of a cluster of villages in rural Uganda over 12 years, this paper shows that, after more than a decade of prevention campaigns about the dangers of the epidemic, there has been a substantial evolution in the HIV/education gradient. Early in the epidemic, in 1990, there was no robust relation between HIV/AIDS and education. In 2000, among young individuals, in particular among females, education lowers the risk of being HIV positive. Results on HIV incidence in a duration framework confirm that finding by establishing that, for young individuals, education reduces the probability of seroconversion. These findings reveal that educated individuals have been more responsive to the HIV/AIDS information campaigns. The analysis of sexual behavior reinforces that conclusion: condom use is associated positively with schooling levels. J.E.L. Classification: O12, I12, I2, J17. ∗[email protected]. I am very grateful to Dr. June Busingye, George Katongole, Jessica Nakiyingi, Julie Pickering, Anthony Ruberantwari and Professor James A.G. Whitworth from the Medical Research Council (UK)/Department for International Development (UK)/Uganda Virus Research Institute Programme on AIDS in Uganda for their hospitality in Uganda, for giving me access to the data set of the General Population Cohort and helping me with thoughtful advice and comments on the data sets and on the general situation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. I thank Alberto Abadie, Gary S. Becker, Hoyt Bleakley, Frikkie Booysen, Shiyan Chao, Raphael De Coninck, Mark Duggan, Michael Greenstone, Jonathan Guryan, Patrick Heuveline, Fabian Lange, Kenneth Leonard, Steven Levitt, Casey Mulligan, Kevin Murphy, Tomas Philipson, Chris Rohlfs, Desire Vencatachellum, James Whitworth and seminar participants at the University of Chicago, UQAM, Duke, Ohio State, University of Namur, Aarhus University, INSEAD, IIES at Stockholm University, University College Dublin, The World Bank, McGill, Boston University, Oxford, the NEUDC 2003, HEC Montreal and the CSAE 2004 for helpful comments and discussions. Financial support from the Flora and William Hewlett Foundation Fellowship and the Esther and T.W. Schultz Endowment Dissertation Fellowship is gratefully acknowledged. All errors are mine. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. Working papers describe research in progress by the author and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. 1 P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed