Literacy and health-seeking behaviours for HIV/AIDS: the moderating role of economic status in India

Background: Literacy determines how people access healthcare services, particularly in cases such as condom use, HIV testing and pregnancy testing. Economic disparities and literacy differences in India result in unequal access to preventive and medical care. Methods: This research utilizes secondary data to examine the relationships between healthcare behavior and economic status moderation in India's 34 states, employing a cross-sectional approach. Moderation analysis was conducted by using PROCESS Macro v4.2 in SPSS. Results: Significant moderation effects were found for economic status on the relationship between literacy rate and health-seeking behaviors, especially for pregnancy and HIV testing. Conclusions: The research findings highlight the need for developing public health programs that address literacy and economic barriers. Underprivileged communities require specific approaches that account for monetary constraints to achieve better results in HIV prevention combined with reproductive health outcomes.