Determinants of Willingness to Utilize Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV Among Pregnant Women in Addis Ababa
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Mother to child transmission of HIV (MTCT) is the major source of HIV infection among
children under the age of 15 years. This can occur during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or
breast/eeding. Interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus (PMTCT)
are now an important part of HIVIAIDS reduction programs worldwide. In Ethiopia the
PMTCT program was first launched in 2003 and is being scaled up across the country. The
P MTCT program was launched in Addis Ababa in 2004 with an opt-in approach then shifted in
to an opt-out approach since August 2006. The objective of this study is to assess willing to
utilize the PMTCT services and to identify determinants of the PMTCT service utilization in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study which employed both quantitative and
qualitative data collection method was conducted from March to April 2010 in Addis Ababa
from the selected hospitals. For the quantitative section, a standardized questionnaire was
prepared while Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and key informants interview were
conducted to collect qualitative data. A total of 650 pregnant women in five hospitals in the
city participated in the study. The collected data were edited, entered, cleaned and analyzed
using descriptive statistics and multi variate analysis with SPSS version 16. The finding
revealed that, the mean age of the respondents are 25.5 years, 53.1% of the respondents were
willing to utilize the P MTCT service. The reasons given by the pregnant women for not willing
10 utilize the PMTCT service were found to be; they did not believe that ARV prophylaxis is
effective, lack of knowledge,fear of being identified as P LWHA by people, their husbands were
not willing to utilize the P MTCT service and religiOn/cultural reasons. Around 70% had
enough knowledge about the PMTCT service. Regarding partners ' attitude 68.9% of the
husband had positive attitude aboUl the utilization of the PMTCT service., 46.3% percent of
pregnant women who discussed with their husband about the existence of PMTCT service and
Educational status and family monthly income were positively associated with willing to utilize
PMTCT service. Based on the above findings, women should be empowered through
education, PMTCT programs should give emphasis on involvement of male partners, intensive
education to both pregnant women and their partners on prenatal HIV transmission,
improvement of health service (delivery and antenatal care) and stigma and discriminations
should be addressed through strong information, education and communication.
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Keywords
Determinants of Willingness to Utilize Prevention