Fertility intentions and associated factors of HIV positive women of reproductive age in JOS, Northcentral Nigeria

Abstract

Background: With the improvement in the quality of life of women living with Human Immunodefi ciency Virus /Acquired Human Immune defi ciency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS)in recent times, heir fertility desires have been shown to be changing. In spite of this, not much has been documented of the fertility intentions of these women in Jos. Therefore, our study aims to determine the fertility intentions and associated factors among HIV positive women of reproductive age accessing care in Jos University Teaching Hospital +(JUTH) Plateau State.Methods: It was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in the APIN Centre of the Jos University Teaching Hospital in Plateau State. An intervieweradministered questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographics and fertility intentions from 335 HIV positive women of reproductive age from June to July 2018..Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 software package. Univariate and bivariate statistical analysis were carried out to identify the fertility intentions and the related factors . Results:The age range was 18-49 years with mean age of 37.44 ± 6.40 years. Fertility intentions of HIV positive women of reproductive age varied with 47.5% expressing desire for more children. Majority (92.5%) wanted to have two or more children. More than half (56%) wanted the next child within two years but 44% wanted them delayed till after two years. Although age, marital status, duration of marriage, number of living children and contraceptive use were found to be signifi cantly associated with fertility intentions, the predictors of fertility desires were number of living children (AOR=11.00,P-value-0.026), age (AOR=2.231,P-value-0.033),use of contraceptives(AOR=0.397,P-value-0.001) and duration of marriage (AOR=5.46,P-value-0.001). Conclusion:Women living with HIV have varied fertility intentions. The desire for more children was highest among women in the early phase of marriage and those with few surviving children. Health Care providers and policy makers need to consider increasing services and support for family planning for HIV positive women with different fertility desires.