Influence of Some Demographic Variables On Adherence to Counselling Services On Mother-To-Child HIV Transmission Among HIV Positive Pregnant Women in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The study accessed the HIV counselling services that are available at the Ekiti state antenatal clinics and adherence of the HIV positive pregnant women to the counselling services received. It particularly looked into the influence of demographic variables on the adherence to counselling services on mother to child HIV transmission among positive pregnant women in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population for the study comprises of all HIV positive pregnant women in Ekiti State with sample of 110 of HIV positive pregnant women selected from a tertiary hospital using multistage sampling techniques. A self-designed questionnaire and an adopted instrument were used to elicit information from both the clients and the social workers at the clinic. The instruments were subjected to face and content validity. A pilot study was conducted to determine the reliability of the instruments. This was determined using test-retest method and reliability co-efficient of 0.85, found significant at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed descriptively using frequency count, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation matrix, and multiple regression. The findings show that there are enough counselling services in Ekiti State Antenatal Clinics and the counsellors are discharging their duties but more still need to be done in other to create more awareness of the preventive measure to HIV and awareness of the counselling services that are available. Also, the adherence to counselling services received by HIV positive pregnant women in Ekiti State is influenced by the education level of the pregnant women, occupation, marital status, and religion affinities. It is recommended that government should not relent in their effort to eradicate HIV and also counselling intervention should be more intensified in the hospitals. It is concluded that that there is HIV counselling in Ekiti State ante-natal clinic and the HIV positive pregnant women have moderate adherence level to the counselling services which is influenced by their level of education, occupation, marital status, and religion affinities.