Fertility Desire and Contraceptive Utilization among People Living With HIV/AIDS on ART in Hosanna Town, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

HIV positive individuals may or may not have intention to have children. They could also have different degrees of utilization and demand for contraception. The desire of HIV infected persons to have children in the future has implication for the transmission of HIV to sexual partners or newborns. The study was designed to assess the fertility desire and contraceptive utilization among PLWHAs on ART in Hossana town. Institutional based cross sectional study supplemented by in-depth interview was conducted from January to March 2010 on total sample of 321 who were on ART. Women 18-49 years and men 18-59 years were included. Data was entered by using EPI info 2000 then exported and analyzed by SPSS 17.0. Total of 117 (36.45%) of respondents were desiring children. Respondents with no children (AOR 60.89, 95% CI 8.02-462.05), those who intended to use family planning in the future (AOR 4.35, 95% CI 1.61-11.73) were more likely to desire children. 102(31.8%) were using family planning. Being married (AOR 7.83, 95% CI 1.08-56.79), having three or more children (AOR 4.54, 95% CI 1.12-18.48), and having knowledge on mother to child transmission (AOR 4.29, 95% CI 1.98-9.26) plan to have children in the future (AOR 0.29, 95% CI 0.1-0.82) were significantly associated with family planning. A high proportion of HIV positive individuals desired children. A better and evidence based understanding of fertility intentions and demand for contraception was needed to promote and protect women and men living with HIV/AIDs to make informed decisions about reproduction and to have access to appropriate sexual reproductive health services.