Disclosure of HIV seropositivity to sexual partner and psychosocial factors in Ethiopia: Systematic review and meta-analysis 

Abstract Background: The burden of HIV/AIDS again becomes a public health problem after substantial control of its transmission in Ethiopia. For effective HIV transmission control measures, sero-disclosure to sexual partner is indispensable. Once the infection is established, psychosocial factors would have a great influence on HIV disclosure status to sexual partners which is very important to control viral transmission. This review aimed to estimate the national proportion of HIV disclosure practice to sexual partner and identify associated psychosocial factors.Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, African Journals Online, and Google Scholar databases. The Newcastle Ottawa quality assessment scale was used to assess the quality of studies. To ensure the absence or presence of publication bias, we used a funnel plot and performed Egger’s regression test for the subjective and objective assessment, respectively. Variation across studies was assessed using the I2 statistic. The pooled proportion was estimated by using weighted inverse variance random-effects model meta-analysis. We did subgroup and sensitivity analysis to explore the reason for heterogeneity and the impact of outlier finding on the overall estimation, respectively. Trend analysis was also performed to see the presence of time variation. Results: The proportion of HIV sero-disclosure practice to sexual partners was 76.03 % (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 68.78, 83.27). Being on ART (AOR=6.19; 95% CI: 2.92, 9.49), cohabiting with partner (AOR=4.48; 95% CI: 1.24, 7.72), getting counseling (AOR=3.94; 95% CI: 2.08, 5.80), had discussion prior to HIV testing (AOR= 4.40; 95% CI: 2.11, 6.69), awareness of partner’s HIV status (AOR= 6.08; 95%CI: 3.05, 9.10),smooth relationship with partner (AOR=4.44; 95% CI:1.28, 7.61), and being member of anti-HIV association (AOR=3.70; 95% CI: 2.20, 5.20) facilitates HIV status disclosure.Conclusions: In Ethiopia, still more than one-fourth of HIV-infected adults did not disclose their HIV positivity status to sexual partners. Psychosocial factors were the contributing factors of HIV-positive status disclosure. Further work is still needed to increase HIV status disclosure so as to decrease the transmission rate of HIV in Ethiopia.