Family Characteristics and Determinants of HIV-Status Disclosure of HIV-Clients in a Rural Tertiary Hospital in Southern Nigeria

Introduction: HIV/AIDS is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. Outcomes of HIV care and support are dependent on disclosure of status to caregiver. The best caregivers are usually family members. The study therefore aimed at determining the family characteristics and determinants of status disclosure among HIV-clients of a tertiary hospital in southern Nigeria.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Antiretroviral clinic of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Southern Nigeria. A structured-questionnaire containing sociodemographic, family and clinical characteristics of participants was administered on 230 consented PLHIV who met the inclusion criteria for the study. Frequency distribution tables of variables were generated. Statistical comparison of variables was done using the Chi-squared test for categorical variables, while Students’‘t’ test and analysis of variance for continuous variables. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Result: Majority, 168 (73.0%) participants were females and the remaining participants, 62 (27.0%) were males. One hundred and thirty eight (138; 60%) were married, 47 (20.4%) were either widows or widowers and 26 (11.3%) were singles having sexual partners. Of the remaining participants, 14 (6.1%) were separated from their spouses, while 3 (1.3%) and 2 (0.9%) were Cohabiters and Divorcees respectively. One hundred and sixty-eight (73.1%) participants were aware of their partner’s HIV status, while 62 (26.9%) were ignorant of their partner’s HIV status. Eighty-two (48.8%) participants had HIV-Concordant partners, 86 (51.2%) participants’ partners are HIV-Discordant partners. The predictors of HIV disclosure among the participants were knowledge of HIV-status of partner (odd ratio of 12.44) and marital status (odds ratio of 7.213).

Conclusion: Most PLHIV in the area are married. Married individuals have greater propensity to disclose to their spouse. Knowledge of one’s partner HIV-status and positive-concordant status highly increased the chances of disclosure to partners in any union.