SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS OF PREVENTION OF MOTHER -TO- CHILD TRANSMISSION OF HIV AND AIDS SERVICES UTILIZATION AMONG HIV POSITIVE PREGNANT WOMEN IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA. A RESEARCH TOPIC ON HEALTH AND KINETICS.
Abstract
HIV transmission in children has become a critical public health problem which has threatened to reverse the gains of the child survival strategy if nothing is done to halt it. This is partly due to lack or poor utilization of the Prevention of Mother –To-Child Transmission of HIV services by HIV positive pregnant women in Taraba State. The study was to investigate the Socio-demographic Predictors of Prevention of Mother-to-child transmission of HIV services Utilization among HIV positive pregnant women in Taraba State, Nigeria. The design was cross- sectional, the population for the study consisted of HIV positive pregnant women (15-49years) attending antenatal clinic in all the facilities offering PMTCT services in Taraba State and health care providers attending to them. A sample size of 650 was drawn from the population using single population proportion formula. Convenience and purposive sampling procedure was used to select the respondents and a two stage cluster sampling procedure was used to select the facilities for the study. Three instruments were used for data collection; they include; researcher designed questionnaire (SODPOPSUQ), focus group discussion guide and key informant interview protocol. They were validated by five experts, three from Department of Health and Physical Education and two from Nursing Sciences Department all of University of Nigeria Nsukka. The Cronbach Alpha co efficiency was used to test the reliability of the SODPOPSUQ and an index of .96 was obtained. Data was collected by the help of two midwives from each facility who were briefed by the researcher. Research questions were answered using descriptive statistic of tables, frequencies and percentages and Pearson’s Chi-Square. The null hypotheses were tested using logistic regression analysis at .05 level of significance. The findings revealed that more than a half (50.3%) of the HIV positive pregnant women who utilized PMTCT services were 15-29 years, more than a half (52.1%) were Christians, majority (67.7%) were married.
