FERTILITY DESIRE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS ATTENDING ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY AT HIWOT FANA SPECIALIZED UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN HARAR TOWN, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Fertility desire is a psychological state in which someone has the personal motivation to have a child. Different studies showed that women living with Human Immuno Deficiency Virus have different reproductive intentions with majority desirous of childbearing. There was no similar studies conducted only in women in Harari region except the one that was done in both sexes. This study tried to assess the fertility desire of human immune deficiency positive women with the wide availability of antiretroviral therapy and prevention of mother to child transmission service in Harar town, Eastern Ethiopia. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess fertility desire and associated factors among women living with Human immune deficiency virus attending their antiretroviral therapy at Hiwot fana specialized university hospital, Harar, from June 15 to July 15, 2020. Method: cross- sectional study design was employed. A total of 639 eligible women were systematically included in the study. Epi Data version 4.6.0.2 and SPSS version 26 software was used for data entry and analysis, respectively. Logistic regression analysis method was used to identify factors associated with fertility desire. Factors that had p-values of <0.05 in the multivariate analysis were considered statistically significant. Result- This study revealed that 69.5%, 95%CI: (65.7%-72.9%) of the participants have fertility desire. Variables such as age <35 years [AOR=2.35, 95%CI :( 1.27-4.35)], Married women are [AOR=4.02, 95%CI: (1.32-12.25)], partners child desire [AOR=24.32, 95%CI :( 10.49-56.4)] and partners serostatus [AOR=3.19, 95%CI: (1.64-6.22)] had a positive association with the outcome variable, whereas having one child [AOR=0.24, 95%CI :( 0.07-0.82)], two children [AOR=0.09, CI :( 0.03-0.31)] and three or more children [AOR=0.07, 95%CI :( 0.02-0.27)] and women whose duration of HIV diagnosis is greater than 5 years [AOR=0.21, 95%CI: (0.04-0.71)] had a negative association with fertility desire. Conclusion- Majority of fertility the study participants have a desire to have child/children the future. Age, marital status, number of alive children, partner‘s desire, duration of diagnosis, and partner‘s serostatus were identified as determinant factors of fertility desire. This indicates that, there needs to be reproductive planning and counseling for clients in treatment and care settings in order to meet HIV positive women‘s diverse reproductive needs for those wishing to have children and those wishing to avoid having a child.