HIV/AIDS: Research and Palliative Care (Dec 2020)
The Magnitude and Associated Factors of Consistent Condom Utilization Among ART Users in Hawassa City, Sidama, Ethiopia
Abstract
Biruk Tesfaye,1 Yohannes Seifu,2 Bereket Tekleselassie,2 Amanuel Ejeso3 1School of Public Health, Yirgalem Medical College, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia; 2School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia; 3Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Yohannes SeifuDepartment of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Science, Hawassa University, Hawassa 005, EthiopiaEmail [email protected]: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) introduction has sharply decreased mortality and morbidity rates among HIV-infected patients and resulted in longer and healthier lives among people living with HIV. Hence, the aim of this study is to determine the level of consistent condom use and associated factors among ART users in Hawassa City.Methods: Cross-sectional study design triangulated with qualitative phenomenology was used. One hospital and one health center were selected by simple random sampling and proportional to size allocation was used to assign participants to each health facility. Accordingly, 358 study subjects were selected. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval was used to implicate significant factors. Thematic content analysis was used and narrative report writing with a quote was used to present qualitative data.Results: The prevalence of consistent condom utilization in this study was 51.4%. Sex (AOR= 4.20, 95% CI: 2.386, 7.41), residence (AOR=3.55, 95% CI: 1.81, 6.99) educational status (AOR=0.4, 95% CI: 0.196, 0.946), perception on ART’s does not reduction of HIV transmission (AOR=1.96, 95% CI: 1.12, 3.43), rate of counseling (AOR=0.37, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.84) and use condom to prevent pregnancy (AOR=4.53, 95% CI: 2.11, 9.73) were found to be independent predictors of consistent condom utilization among ART users. Refusal by husbands, decrement in satisfaction, gender difference with more women than men willing to use consistently and religious reasons were factors associated with inconsistent condom utilization in the qualitative study.Conclusion and Recommendation: Consistent condom utilization among ART users was low. Sex, residence, educational status, perception towards ART were significantly associated with consistent condom utilization. Moreover, husband refusal, religious reason, decrement in satisfaction on the qualitative study were associated with non-consistent use of a condom. The importance of consistent condom use should be well addressed in HIV/AIDS patients, to prevent transmission and multiple infections of HIV.Keywords: condom utilization, HIV/AIDS, Hawassa City
