Determinants of family planning service use among HIV positive women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: Sub-Saharan Africa is at the central point of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and continues to carry the full burden of its health and socioeconomic impacts. Ethiopia is among the countries most affected by the HIV epidemic. Though, family planning helps HIV positive women to prevent unintended pregnancy, avoid stress of pregnancy and plan desired pregnancy while minimizing risk of vertical transmission, there are still different factors that affect its widespread use. The study was therefore aimed to assess determinants of family planning service use among HIV positive women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Methodology: Institution based cross sectional survey was conducted, among 411 HIV positive women aged 15–49 years recruited from all public hospitals in Addis Ababa; in September 2015. Information was gathered by using interviewer administered semi structured questionnaires. Data were entered in Microsoft excel, cleaned and finally exported to IBM SPSS version 21 for analysis. Binary Logistic regression models were used to predict the association of study variables.

Result: Overall, 41% of respondents reported current use of family planning. The most popular method used were condom (44.6%) and injectable (32.7%). The main reasons for nonuse of modern family planning methods were: fear of side effects and fear of contraception complication with ART drugs. In addition to this, being employed, no desire for more children, and positive attitude towards family planning were found to be srong predictors of family planning service use. Four in every five women preferred to receive family planning service from ART clinic. Conclusion: Modern family planning knowledge among the study population was almost universal similar to that of the general population; however, the prevalence of family planning use among HIV positive women was lower than the general population in Addis Ababa. Additional efforts are thus needed for expansion of family planning service among HIV positive women.