Male partner involvements in PMTCT: a cross sectional study, Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundMale partner participation is a crucial component to optimize antenatal care/prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV(ANC/PMTCT) service. It creates an opportunity to capture pregnant mothers and their male partners to reverse the transmission of HIV during pregnancy, labour and breast feeding. Thus involving male partners during HIV screening of pregnant mothers at ANC is key in the fight against mother to child transmission of HIV(MTCT). So, the aim of this study is to determine the level of male partner involvement in PMTCT and factors that affecting it.MethodsA Cross-sectional study was conducted among 473 pregnant mothers attending ANC/PMTCT in Mekelle town health facilities in January 2011. Systematic sampling was used to select pregnant mothers attending ANC/PMTCT service after determination of the client load at each health facility. Clinic exit structured interviews were used to collect the data. Finally multiple logistic regression was used to identify factors that affect male involvement in ANC/PMTCT.ResultsTwenty percent of pregnant mothers have been accompanied by their male partner to the ANC/PMTCT service. Knowledge of HIV sero status [Adj.OR (95% CI) = 0.43 (0.18- 0.66)], maternal willingness to inform their husband about the availability of voluntary counselling and testing services in ANC/PMTCT [Adj.OR (95% CI) =3.74(1.38-10.17)] and previous history of couple counselling [Adj.OR (95% CI) =4.68 (2.32-9.44)] were found to be the independent predictors of male involvement in ANC/PMTCT service.ConclusionMale partner involvement in ANC/PMTCT is low. Thus, comprehensive strategy should be put in place to sensitize and advocate the importance of male partner involvement in ANC/PMTCT in order to reach out male partners.

Male Partners Involvement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Services in Southern Central Ethiopia: In Case of Lemo District, Hadiya Zone

“…Lastly, our study revealed that, among male partners who accompany their pregnant wives, 117 (95.2%) of husbands who accompany their pregnant wives have tested and counselled for HIV in the current pregnancy of their wives at ANC. This is higher than findings from Mekele and Tanzania [11, 25]. This inconsistency might be due to current improvement in maternal and child health activities when compared to those studies period.…”

Is it time to bring the “Parent” into the prevention of parent to child transmission programs in India? A study of trends over a 10-year period in a prevention of parent to child transmission clinic in India

“…Less than 1% of male partners were tested in the PPTCT clinic; the proportion had significantly reduced over the past 10 years. Though, low male involvement has been reported globally,[20212223] none of these studies found the involvement to be as low as our study. In general, HIV testing among male partners has been reported to be significantly higher in HIV-infected women and in those whose men who had tested for HIV earlier.…”

Counselling services in prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) in Delhi, India: An assessment through a modified version of UNICEF-PPTCT tool

“…Various socio-cultural factors may influence the involvement of the husband in pregnancy and child birth. Comprehensive strategies to sensitize and advocate the importance of the male partner/husband are to be put in place [28] as a part of the training programme.…”