Food Insecurity and Associated Factors among HIV Positive Adults Attending ART At Arba Minch General Hospital, Southern Ethiopia, 2016

Abstract

Background: Food insecurity and HIV/AIDS are linked in viscous cycle. Food insecurity may increase the acquisition of HIV via vertical and horizontal transmission by compromised nutritional status. The combined impacts of food insecurity and HIV/ AIDS place further strain already limited household resources as affected family members struggle to meet household food needs. The fore this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of food insecurity in order to give current evidence to design intervention measure for improvement of food insecurity. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine prevalence of food insecurity and identify its associated factors among HIV positive adults attending ART clinic at Arba Minch hospital. Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study design was carried out from February 15, 2016 to March 30, 2016 at Arba Minch General Hospital. Interview administered questionnaires was used to collect data on socio demographics, behavioral, social and organizational support from 394 HIV infected patient through systematic sampling methods in ART clinic. In addition to data related to HIV clinical information was extracted from anti retro viral therapy clinical charts. Two diploma nurses recruited as data collectors and one Bsc nurses as supervisor. Data Analysis- Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Frequency and cross tabulation was conducted to clean data and describe the study variable in relation to outcome. Bivariate logistic regression analysis was computed to assess the crude association between dependent and independent variables. Variables which shows association in bivariate logistic regression analysis and have P-value less than 0.25 was entered in to Multivariable logistic regression model, to identify significant factors associated with outcome variables by controlling confounding factors. Finally significant factors were identified based on AOR include with 95% Confidence level and P-value less than 0.05. Result-The prevalence of food insecurity in this study was 19.5% with CI [17.50, 21.5]. The dietary diversity score result indicates that high proportion (6.6%) of the respondents consumed low dietary diversity below 3 food items. In multivariate variables clients who are female 2.93(1.16, 7.40): those who are rural dwellers 3.59(1.65, 7.836): monthly income less than 1000 Eth birr 6.16(2.33, 16.32) and those between 1000- 2000 Eth birr 5.72(2.47, 13.38): WHO clinical three & four 4.78(1.95, 11.69): developing OIS 8.03(3.84, 16.78) and those who are poor adherence 8.96(3.48, 23.05) were significantly associated with food insecurity Conclusion and Recommendation- Food security is an existing problem for HIV/ADIS infected clients. Improving socio-economic status, involving in productive job by designing income generation strategies is essential to solve food insecurity problems. Screening OIs and providing medical treatment early to improve economic productivity. Special emphasis should be give for PLWHIV who have low income, have opportunistic infection and for WHO stage III and IV at clinical and community level of intervention. - 6 -