Belief about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention among pregnant women in Felege Hiwot hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

2^nd International Conference on HIV/AIDS, STDs, & STIs

October 27-29, 2014 Embassy Suites Las Vegas, USA

Yeshiwork Beyene and Hussen Mekonnen

Accepted Abstracts: J AIDS Clin Res

Abstract :

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are global health problems. Since AIDS is not only a vital medical problem, but also a socioeconomic complication, increasing people?s knowledge and replacing their fatalistic belief by a non fatalistic belief is important to decrease prevalence of the problem. Objective: To examine beliefs about HIV/AIDS of pregnant women and to study the relationship between their belief and HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors. Methods: A cross-sectional structured and semi-structured interviews with mixed method approach based survey were used. Convenience sampling technique was used to select study participants. Quantitative data analysis was computed by SPSS V.15 and qualitative data analysis was done manually. Result: Out of 422 respondents, 336 (79.6%) and 86 (20.4%) had a non fatalistic and a fatalistic belief, respectively. Majority of the respondents 407 (96.4%) believe that HIV can be transmitted from mother to child and small proportion 15 (3.6%) don?t believe the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Conclusion: The findings showed that 20% of the women were fatalistic and that their beliefs about AIDS may affect prevention behaviors. Fatalistic believe is one of the factors influencing HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors, but it is a vital factor for health professionals to consider when developing future HIV/AIDS prevention strategies among fatalistic people.