Abstract
BackgroundAdherence to antiretroviral therapy is very essential to achieve a great outcome of drugs via suppressing viral load, preventing multidrug resistance, and reducing mother to a child transmission rate of the Human Immune Virus.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT and associated factors among HIV Positive pregnant and lactating women in public health facilities of Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia, 2020 G.C.MethodsInstitution-based cross-sectional study was done on 254 HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) follow-up. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. Data collected through a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire were cleaned and entered into Epi-data 3.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was done. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressions were done to measure the strength of association between independent and dependent variables using the odds ratio and 95% of confidence interval. A p-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.ResultThe overall adherence level to option B+ was 224 (88.2%). Respondents in age group of ≤ 25 [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.42)], with no formal education [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.51)], experienced drug side effects [AOR = 0.11, 95% CI (0.04, 0.32)], have good knowledge of PMTCT [AOR = 3.6, 95% CI (1.16, 11.3)], and get support from partner/family [AOR = 4.5, 95% CI (1.62, 12.4)] were identified associated factors with adherence level.ConclusionThe level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT was 88.2% which is suboptimal. Ages, educational level, knowledge on PMTCT, getting support from partner/family, and drug side effect were significantly associated with adherence. Therefore, educating and counseling on the service of PMTCT to improve their knowledge and encouraging partner/family involvement in care are mandatory to achieve the standard adherence level.
Highlights
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) accounts for over 90% of 180,000 new pediatric HIV infections in 2017 [1]
Institution-based cross-sectional study was done on 254 HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) follow-up
Educational level, knowledge on PMTCT, getting support from partner/family, and drug side effect were significantly associated with adherence
Summary
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) accounts for over 90% of 180,000 new pediatric HIV infections in 2017 [1]. Option B plus PMTCT is a newly proposed option with the feature of offering all pregnant and lactating women lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) regardless of the cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) count and clinical stage [2] to reduce MTCT rate to less than 5% in breastfeeding and less than 2% in non-breastfeeding women [3] To achieve this plan, drug adherence is very incredible [4]. In Ethiopia, three studies conducted in Tigray [8], South wollo [9], and Hadya [10] showed that 12.9%, 12.3%, and 17% of participants don’t have good adherence to option B+ PMTCT respectively These indicate that still 11%-18% of newborns in probable to be infected by HIV which is far away to reach the goal set globally to end new HIV infection in children by 2030 [11]. Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is very essential to achieve a great outcome of drugs via suppressing viral load, preventing multidrug resistance, and reducing mother to a child transmission rate of the Human Immune Virus
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