Factors Affecting the Prevalence of Skin Disorders among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infected Children in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Among HIV infected children, skin disorders are vital as they give a clue to diagnosis of the HIV disease. Various factors are associated with occurrence of skin disorders among HIV infected children. Objectives: To determine the factors associated with prevalence of skin disorders among HIV infected children in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted to determine the factors affecting skin disorders among HIV infected children attending Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. A total of 223 HIV infected participants aged 6weeks to14 years were recruited for this study. Chi-square test or Fishers exact test where necessary were used to determine the difference between proportions of categorical variables and level of significance was set at 0.05. Multivariate analysis was used to further analyse significant relationships from the univariate analysis. The confidence level was set at 95% and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant Results: There were 110 (49.3%) males and 113 females (50.7%). The male to female ratio was found to be 1:1.1. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the children had skin disorder. A multivariate analysis showed that only age, social class and immune status were significantly associated with the occurrence of skin disorders. Conclusion: Among the HIV infected children, age, socioeconomic class and immune status were the factors found to determine the Prevalence of skin disorders.