Male Partner Involvement on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Associated Factors among Pregnant Mothers Attending Antenatal at Fantale District, Ethiopia

Background: Only screening pregnant mother is not adequate to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. Thus, male partners’ involvement has been considered as a first priority to focus intervention to be intensified in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. But it remained one of the biggest challenges in Ethiopia. Objective: Assess the extent of male partner’s involvement in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and identify associated factors in Fentale district, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study design was employed. Data was collected from random sample of 272 pregnant mothers at antenatal care clinic of Health facilities in Fentale district from 1st to 31st March, 2016. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. Multivariate logistic regressions were carried out, association between independent and dependent variables was measured using adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence interval and P-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: Male partner involvement on Antenatal care/Prevention of Mother to Child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV was 14.0%. Pregnant mothers living in urban were 3.8 times more likely to be accompanied by their partner on Antenatal care/Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV compared to those from rural (AOR=3.8, 95% CI: 1.24, 7.86). On the other-hand mothers not having negative cultural belief about accompanying their partner at Antenatal care were 2.3 times more likely to involve their partner compared to those having negative beliefs (AOR=2.3, 95% CI: 1.94, 9.66). Conclusion: Male partner involvement on Antenatal care/Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV was 14.0% which is very low. Residence and cultural beliefs about accompanying pregnant mother at Antenatal care were found to be the independent predictors of male partner involvement. Hence, comprehensive strategy should be put in place to improve male partner involvement giving special focuses for pastoralists.