Fertility desire and associated factors among HIV positive women attending ART clinics, Afar region, northeast Ethiopia

Abstract BackgroundThe desire of human immune deficiency virus infected person to have children in the future has significant implication for the transmission of human immune deficiency virus to sexual partner and new born. However, fertility desire has given little attention and the uptake of PMTCT services is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to assess fertility desire and associated factors among HIV positive women attending ART clinics, Afar region, northeast EthiopiaMethodologyInstitution-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 402 HIV positive women attending ART clinic in selected Hospitals in Afar region. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to identify and enroll women. Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify the factors associated with fertility desire. Statistical association was measured and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultIn this study a total of 391 HIV positive were participated with a response rate of 97.3%.The prevalence of fertility desire was 63.9 % (95 % CI, 59.1 %, 68.8 %). Young age between 15–24 (AOR = 11.98, 95% CI (4.04, 35.5) and 25–34 years (AOR = 2.93, 95% CI (1.46, 5.86), women who were not had live children (AOR = 5.1, 95% CI (1.31, 20.2) and women that had 1 or 2 live children (AOR = 2.7, 95% CI (1.39, 5.27), disclose sero status to their partner (AOR = 5.89, 95% CI (2.33, 14.9) were associated with increased odds of fertility desire. However, women who use contraceptive were associated with decreased odd of fertility desire (AOR = 0.11, 95%, CI (0.05, 0.22).ConclusionThis study showed that six in ten HIV positive women attending ART clinic were had fertility desire. Young age, not having live child, and having 1 or 2 live number of children, disclosing sero status to partner, and contraceptive use were predictors of fertility desire. Therefore, efforts should be made to increase fertility desire among young HIV positive women attending ART clinic. Moreover, awareness creation on the importance of disclosing sero status to partner is mandatory as it helps to increase fertility desire.