Married women pre-marital HIV testing status in Ethiopia: Individual and community level factor analysis

Molla Yigzaw Birhanu; Daniel Bekele Ketema; Melaku Desta; Samuel Derbie Habtegiorgis; Belayneh Mengist; Alehegn Aderaw Alamneh; Ayenew Negesse Abeje; Eniyew Tegegne; Aytenew Geremew Mengist; Migbar Dessalegn; Getamesay Molla Bekele; Selamawit Shita Jemberie

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.913040

Married women pre-marital HIV testing status in Ethiopia: Individual and community level factor analysis

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Mar 2:10:913040. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.913040. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
² Department of Human Nutrition, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
³ Department of Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
⁵ Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
⁶ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, School of Medicine, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Introduction: Marriage between serodiscordant individuals accounts for 65-85% of new infections. Pre-marital Human Immune Virus (HIV) testing opens the door for HIV infection prevention and control. There are no studies that have evaluated the coverage and factors influencing pre-marital HIV testing at the community level in Ethiopia.

Methods: This study was conducted using 10,008 samples of data extracted from Ethiopian demographic and health surveys (EDHS), 2016. To identify individual and community level factors a multi-level binary logistic regression model was used. Among fitted models, "full" model was taken as the best model. To declare the presence or absence of significant association with pre-marital HIV testing, a p-value < 0.05 with confidence interval (CI) was used.

Results: In Ethiopia, 21.4% (95% CI: 20.6, 22.2%) of study participants had pre-marital HIV testing. Age 35-49 years (AOR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.66), educated (AOR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.17, 2.79), rich (AOR = 1.95; 95% CI: 1.13, 3.55), having media exposure (AOR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.30, 4.71), and high community level literacy (AOR = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.66) were factors significantly associated with pre-marital HIV testing.

Conclusion: The low coverage of pre-marital HIV testing in Ethiopia is insufficient to have a significant influence on the HIV/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. Information dissemination to create awareness about human rights and public health implications of pre-marital HIV testing áre necessary while it is made mandatory.

Keywords: Ethiopia; HIV testing; married women; multi-level; pre-marital.