Level of male partner involvement and associated factors in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS services in Debremarkos town, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

The largest source of HIV infection in children is mother-to-child transmission. Lack of men involvement 
deprives women of their partners care and support in coping with HIV infection, in taking antiretroviral 
therapy and making appropriate infant feeding choices. Thus, this study assessed the level of male 
involvement and associated factors in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. A cross-sectional 
study was conducted using simple random sampling from 15th March to 30th April 2013. Pre-tested 
structured questionnaire was used to collect the data.  Data were collected from 274 respondents. The data 
were cleaned, coded and entered into Epi Info 6.0 then exported and analyzed using SPSS 16.0. One 
hundred ninety eight (72.26%) of the respondents scored above seven on a 14-point scale of measurement 
for male involvement. Male involvement was found to have a statistically significant association with self
employment (AOR= 0.36, 95%CI: 0.16-0.84), daily laborer (AOR= 0.14, 95%CI: 0.06-0.36), moderate 
knowledge about PMTCT (AOR= 4.4, 95%CI: 1.9-10.0), good knowledge about PMTCT (AOR= 3.2, 95%CI: 
1.29-7.9) and moderate programmatic factors (AOR= 10, 95%CI: 2.0-56.0). The level of male partner 
involvement was 198 (72.26%). Information on PMTCT coupled with male-friendly PMTCT services should 
be provided to the public.