Socio-Demographic Profiles of Naive HIV Pregnant Women and Retention to the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Interventions in the East Region of Cameroon ()
Affiliation(s)
1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
3Department of Family Health, Ministry of Public Health, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
4Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
5Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
ABSTRACT
Background: At enrolment into antenatal care, socio-demographic data of HIV infected
pregnant women and lactating mothers are usually collected with little or no analysis done on them. This
study was aimed to describe the socio-demographic profiles of naive to
antiretroviral therapy (ART) HIV-infected pregnant women in the East region of Cameroon and to link this to
retention in order to optimize the implementation of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) interventions. Methods: A
descriptive prospective study that lasted from February 2018 until February 2019 in three catchment health
facilities in the East region for the recruitment and follow-up of participants who
were consented HIV-infected
pregnant women naive to ART. Socio-demographic, treatment compliance and
adherence data were obtained by healthcare providers who were trained using a
standard questionnaire that was conceived, tested and adapted for the study.
Data were analyzed using Graph Prism (Graph pad 6.0, San Diego, USA). The
Fisher exact and Chi-squared tests were used to establish the associations and
independence between different variables at statistical significance level of p < 0.05. Results: A total of seventy (70) women were enrolled with age
range varying between 15 and 40 years with a mean age of 26.5 ± 6.2 years. Loss-to-follow-up (LTFU) was observed among 17 women (24.29%). The
Muslim religion, education below secondary level and the profession of housewife
were significantly associated with LTFU at p = 0.01, p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0053, respectively. For participants
who were retained until study endpoint, having secondary level of education or
above and a profession other than housewife had a significant association (p = 0.0063), as well as being a
Christian. Conclusion: Loss to follow-up in PMTCT program was associated with Muslim religion,
primary level of education and the housewife occupation.
Share and Cite:
Manyi, O. , Clement, A. , Enow, M. and Marcelin, N. (2020) Socio-Demographic Profiles of Naive HIV Pregnant Women and Retention to the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Interventions in the East Region of Cameroon.
World Journal of AIDS,
10, 36-45. doi:
10.4236/wja.2020.101004.