Acceptability of routine HIV testing by pregnant women in Lusaka urban antenatal clinics, Lusaka District, Zambia

Abstract

The study was done to investigate the factors that influence acceptability of routine Human Immuno deficiency Virus testing by pregnant women in Lusaka District clinics. Each year around 1.5 million women living with Human Immuno deficiency Virus(HIV) become pregnant, and without antiretroviral drugs there is a chance that their child will become infected. The risk of Human Immuno deficiency Virus transmission from mother to child can be reducedif pregnant women take a regimen of Anti-Retroviral drugs.Following the introduction of Routine Human immuno deficiency Virus testing policy in Zambia, the Human immuno deficiency Virus test is offered to all pregnant women unless they decline. However, more pregnantwomen are declining to be tested.The aim of the study was to investigate the factors that influence acceptability of routine HIV testing by pregnant women in Lusaka urban ante natal clinics. A cross sectional study using a quantitative approach was conducted in Lusaka Urban District clinics. The sample size comprised of 366 pregnant women selected by simple random sampling, from three (3) research settings. A pretested semi structured interview schedule was used to collect data. Data was entered and analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 program.Chi-square was used to test for associations between acceptability of routine HIV testing and other variables. Binary logistic regression modelling was carried out to predict the outcome. Study findings revealed that86.6% of respondents indicated non acceptability of routine HIV testing in pregnancy. Binary logistic regression revealed that maternal age, educational level and information education and communication contributed significantly to the model. The odds revealed that acceptability of routine HIV testing by older pregnant women (37- 49 years) were 8 times (OR- 7.67, p- 0.003) higher than the younger ones. The odds of acceptability by respondents with tertiary education were 141 times (OR-141.23, p-0.000), likely to accept HIV testing than those with primary or no education. The odds also revealed that acceptability by women who cited adequate information, education and communication (OR-2.6, p-0.024) were 3 times higher than those who cited inadequate IEC. The study showed that majority of the pregnant women did not accept Routine HIV testing despite the numbers of women taking the HIV test. Therefore there is need to address some factors that are likely to affect the routine HIV testing and impede the success of implementation of the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT programme in the country which goes beyond testing for HIV alone. Key words: Acceptability, Routine HIV testing, pregnant women