Abstract:
Background: - People living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of
inadequate water, sanitation, and poor hygiene condition. In seeking to protect themselves from
infection, or cope up with the symptoms, their needs for clean water and sanitation increase.
Water and sanitation needs of People living with HIV/AIDS, access to these services often
decline because of lost income, physical disability, and/or stigma associated with the disease.
Objective: - To assess water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practice and associated factors
among adult people living with HIV/AIDS who are on Anti-retroviral therapy in health
institution of Dire Dawa city.
Methods: - A health-institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 25 to June
15, 2016. Data were collected from 422 randomly selcted adult People living with HIV/AIDS
who come to health facilities for anti-retroviral therapy. By using quantitative techniques method
data were collected. Bivirate and multivariate analyses were done to identify the independent
predictors of WASH practice among adult People living with HIV/AIDS.
Results: In the study, 174 (44%) of participants have good WASH practice. The study found that
being femal sex (AOR=0.44; 95% CI: 0.21 to 0.92), elementary educational levele (AOR=3.55;
95% CI: 1.30 to 9.70), client ingaged in work (AOR= 7.08; 95% CI: 1.90 to 26.44), and also
adequate knowlede related to water handling (AOR=0.20; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.35) and good
knowledge regards to hygiene practice (AOR=0.11; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.28) were significantly
associated with WASH practice.
Conclusions: - Less than half of the respondent (44%) has good WASH practice. Sex,
educational status, occupational status and also knowledge of the client related to WASH were
some of the factors that affect WASH practice in this study. Encouraging hygiene education for
people living HIVAIDS on ART services and additional support for the provision of water,
sanitation, and hygiene services is recommended.
