Knowledge of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV among Ethiopian Women aged 15-49: Trend Analysis from 2000-2016

Abstract

Background Globally, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is the major route of pediatric HIV infection. In Ethiopia 110, 000 children aged 0 to 14 were living with HIV in 2014. However, this number has been significantly declined to 36,000 in 2018. Deaths of children due to AIDS has also fall down from 23, 000 in 2014 to 1800 in 2018. Even though improvements have been shown in the past 5 years, still the progress is much less slower than the needed. In this sense, improving maternal and child health, enhancing knowledge and awareness of women towards mitigating of MTCT are essential. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate knowledge of MTCT of HIV, associated factors and its trend among women in Ethiopia.Methods This study included 15683 women obtained from 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). Chi-square tests and binary logistic regressions were performed to investigate the association between risk factors and MTCT of HIV.Results Higher education level (Odds Ratio (OR) =1.39, 95%CI=1.15-1.67; P<0.001), belonging to city administration and Harari region (OR =1.53, 95%CI= 1.23-1.90; P<0.001), being divorced or separated (OR =1.37, 95% CI= 1.19-1.58; P<0.001)), having a better wealth (OR =1.44, 95% CI= 1.24-1.68; P<0.001)), mass media exposure (OR =1.20, 95% CI= 1.12-1.29; P<0.001)) and having comprehensive HIV/AIDS knowledge (OR =1.69, 95% CI= 1.56-1.82; P<0.001) had a strong association with having sufficient knowledge of MTCT. While MTCT knowledge is low (57%) among Ethiopian women, the results show a significant (P<0.001) increase from 2.6% in 2000 to 57% in 2016. Similarly, women in 2016 are 50.40 times more likely to have MTCT of HIV knowledge compared to their counterparts in 2000.Conclusions Taken together, the findings are of key importance to address knowledge on prevention of MTCT of HIV among women of child-bearing age which are targets of effective approaches for reducing MTCT of HIV.