Ugandan Women’s Perception of Contracting AIDS by Marital Status

David Nadler
 The study population in this database is of Ugandan women, ages 15 through 49, divided

into five-year age groups. The key variables that best describe the characteristics of the women

are age groups, region, marital status and religion. This database would be most useful in the

study of Ugandan women’s habits in their perception of getting AIDS.

There are two types of descriptive analysis that can be used based on this database. One

would be to show that the sample population is similar to that of the population as a whole (in

order for us to see that a representative sample has indeed been taken). Another descriptive

study could be to show the distribution of ages/age groups of Ugandan women.

Two questions that can be posed based on the data collected include 1) what is the

average age of Ugandan women in this study and 2) what is the distribtion of ages at the start of

their first marriage?

A descriptive analysis has been conducted based on the ages of Ugandan women in this

study and are presented below in Tables 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows that the age groups of Ugandan

women are skewed to the younger side.

Table 1

Statistics for the Age of Participants

N Participants 1479
Mean 29.24
Median 27.00
Mode 22
Std. Deviation 8.773
Variance 76.957
Range 30
Minimum 17
Maximum 47
Table 2

Ages of Participants
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent
Valid 17 202 13.7 13.7 13.7
22 326 22.0 22.0 35.7
27 297 20.1 20.1 55.8
32 238 16.1 16.1 71.9
37 194 13.1 13.1 85.0
42 122 8.2 8.2 93.2
47 100 6.8 6.8 100.0
Total 1479 100.0 100.0

Figure 1

Histogram of the Ages of Ugandan Women

 We see that Ugandan women are a young population (M = 29.24, Mdn = 27.00, SD =

8.773). The histogram shows us that the ages of the sample population (N = 1,479) have a

greater number of participants to the left of the normal curve plot, which implies that the

population of Ugandan women is young.

For the final part of this Case Assignment, we will conduct a chi-square test based on the

data collected. Question: Does marital status play a role in Ugandan women’s perception of

getting AIDS?

H0 = Marital status plays a role in Ugandan women’s perception of the chances of

getting AIDS.

HA = Marital status does not play a role in Ugandan women’s perception of the

chances of getting AIDS.

The two variables chosen to cross-tabulate from the database are “percept” (perception of

the chances of getting AIDS) and “marital” (current marital status). We will place the marital

status in the columns and place the perceptions in the rows. If we expect that these variables

affect one another, then our expected counts should be similar to the actual counts. The chi-

square table will be generated, and if the significance is lower than .050, we can claim that there

is statistic relevance between these two variables. Table 3 presents the counts of the two

variables and Table 4 presents the chi-square test results.

Table 3

Ugandan Women’s Perception of the Chances of Getting AIDS by Their Marital Status
Current marital status
Living Not living
Married together Widowed Divorced together Total
Perception of the No risk at Count 160 24 22 3 21 230
Chances of all Expected
getting AIDS 166.7 26.9 12.4 5.6 18.4 230.0
Count
Small Count 483 86 29 22 55 675
Expected
489.2 79.0 36.5 16.4 53.9 675.0
Count
Moderate Count 277 32 20 3 27 359
Expected
260.2 42.0 19.4 8.7 28.6 359.0
Count
Great Count 152 31 9 8 15 215
Expected
155.8 25.1 11.6 5.2 17.2 215.0
Count
Total Count 1072 173 80 36 118 1479
Expected
1072.0 173.0 80.0 36.0 118.0 1479.0
Count

Table 4

Chi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 2.481E1 12 .016
Likelihood Ratio 24.841 12 .016
Linear-by-Linear Association 1.455 1 .228
N of Valid Cases 1479
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 5.23.
 Our chi-test results are statistically significant: χ2(12, N = 1,479) = 24.81, p = .016. We

see that the counts are very close to the expected counts in Table 3. This analysis supports the

null hypothesis: Marital status plays a role in Ugandan women’s perception of the chances of

getting AIDS.