Behavioral and emotional problems among children aged 6–14 years on highly active antiretroviral therapy in Addis Ababa: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Children infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at particular risk for psychological disturbance. Little is known about the mental health status of children on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). A hospital-based cross-sectional study of 318 children aged 6-14 on HAART in Addis Ababa was conducted. Behavioral and emotional problem was assessed using the child behavior check list (CBCL/6-18). Logistic regression analysis was done to select the best subset of predictor variables and determine their association with behavioral and emotional problems. Of the 318 caregivers of children aged 6-14 on HAART, 39.3% of the children had behavioral and emotional problems. Low family monthly income (AOR, 3.44, 95% CI, 1.89-6.25), older age (AOR, 2.27, 95% CI, 1.34-3.83), and parental loss (AOR, 1.89, 95% CI, 1.10-3.25) were found to be determinants of behavioral and emotional problems in the multivariate logistic regression. There is high prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems in children on HAART in Addis Ababa. More support is needed to children from families of low income and those who lost their parents. Further research should be carried out to enhance better understanding and appropriate response to behavioral and emotional problems.

Challenges of Caregivers to Disclose their Children’s HIV Positive Status Receiving Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy at Pediatric AntiRetroviral Therapy Clinics in Bahir Dar, North West Ethiopia

“…On the other hand, in developed countries such as the USA, there are guidelines for disclosure of HIV positive status to children developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics [6] which contains detailed instructions on the process of disclosure but such guidelines do not exist in Ethiopia, although there was an effort of include issues related to disclosure in the ''Guidelines for Pediatric HIV/AIDS Care in Ethiopia'' developed by the Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office and Federal Ministry of Health in 2008. However, the disclosure rate of children's HIV positive status receiving HAART in this study was better when compared to the study conducted from developing countries including Ethiopia, ranged from 20% to 30% in Ghana and South Africa [9,13,14,17], and 10% to 18% in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [8,12,18]. The better prevalence rate (35.1%) of disclosure in this study could possibly be explained to the increased number of older children (mean age of 9.8 years, range 6 -14 years) enrolled for HAART.…”

Predictors of mental health problems in adolescents living with HIV in Namibia

“…Studies in sub‐Saharan Africa report mental health problems in ALHIV ranging from around 18% (Small et al., ) to 49% (Kamau, Kuria, Mathai, Atwoli, & Kangethe, ). Few studies have examined risk factors for mental health problems, some pointing to female gender (Kim et al., ), poor health (Kamau et al., ), poverty (Woollett, Cluver, Bandeira, & Brahmbhatt, ), parental loss (Tadesse, Tsehay, Belaineh, & Alemu, ) and stigma (Pantelic, Boyes, Cluver, & Thabeng, ). However, some studies included participants who had not yet been told their HIV status.…”

“…Nondisclosure rates as high as 89% (Tadesse et al., ) complicates findings, since disclosure itself may be a confounding variable (Wright et al., ). Moreover, not all studies focussed on the adolescent age range, with participants as young as 6 years included (Tadesse et al., ). Since adolescence presents a unique period with specific challenges, there is a gap in research.…”

Challenges and social support provisions in the treatment of HIV infected children in Indonesia

“…16 Many problems related to children's adherence have been identified from their caregivers ranging from an economic problems, stressful, forgetful, older caregivers, growing older children and ARV related problems. 6,7,10,[17][18][19][20] ARV related problems might due to adverse events such as skin rash, nausea/vomiting and dizziness. Our result showed similar problem with previous research which mainly stated that boredom, forgetfulness and questioning children were the most common problems as the children growing older.…”