Factors associated with children's HIV- positive status disclosure in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Children's HIV-positive status disclosure is an essential component of chronic care & long-term disease management. The modalities of status disclosure are complex and vary across different communities. Although data from various settings are necessary to overcome this problem, evidence is limited, specifically in the in the study areas. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of HIV-positive status disclosure and associated factors among children on antiretroviral therapy (ART). METHODS: A mixed-method, facility-based study was conducted: among 203 caregivers with children in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. We used in-depth interviews for qualitative data in addition to structured questionnaires. Simple random sampling for quantitative and purposive sampling for qualitative parts was applied. We used Content or Thematic analysis for qualitative and Binary logistic regression for quantitative. RESULTS: All the caregivers were interviewed and majorities (84.7%) of them were female. One hundred twelve children (55.2%) were below 12 years of age. In this study, the overall prevalence of children with HIV-positive status disclosure was 46.8%. Being 12 or more years of age (AOR = 7.5, 95% CI: 2.9-15.6), duration on ART 72 or more months (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI: 1.7-6.7), death of the parent (AOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.1- 3.8), and having follow up in the hospital (AOR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.3-4.7) were associated with disclosure. Being an immature child was the commonest reason cited by caregivers for non-disclosure. Frequent questions by the child about why they are taking drugs, for better self-care, and treatment adherence were the commonest reason of caregivers for disclosing their children's HIV-positive status. CONCLUSION: In our study, children's HIV-positive status disclosure was significantly low. This study identified different factors (Health facility, children, and caregivers-related factors) as the main reason for disclosing children's HIV-positive status. Hence, health care workers should give special attention to children's HIV-positive status disclosure, which helps to increase the effectiveness of treatment and prevent further HIV transmission.

Health-Related Quality of Life and Its Associated Factors Among Burn Patients at Governmental Referral Hospitals of Amhara Regional State, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020: Institutional-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Burns can have a considerable negative impact on physical and psychosocial functioning that affects the quality of life. The physical and psychological manifestations may compromise the quality of life of burned patients. The aim is to assess health-related quality of life and associated factors among burn patients at Amhara regional state governmental referral hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020. METHODS: Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from June 01 to July 15, 2020, in Amhara National regional state governmental referral hospitals. Systematic random sampling technique was used, and data were collected using structured Burn Specific Health Scale Brief Questionnaire through face-to-face interview and document review from patients time since burn 15 days and above. Data were entered into Epidata, and analysis was done by SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were computed, and binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between the dependent and independent variables. Variables with a p-value of ≤0.05 in the multivariable analysis were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of 423 study participants, 95.7% responded completely. Among the respondents, 58.8% (group mean and median of 18.38 and 21) for physical domain and 57% (group mean and median of 44.73 and 53) for generic domains had a poor health-related quality of life. Overall poor health-related quality of life was 57.5% with a mean of 63.12. Third-degree burn, exposed burnt body part, total body surface area burned ≥20%, having an amputation and having a co-morbid illness with (P = 0.001) were associated with poor health-related quality of life. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study revealed that more than half of the burn survivors had poor health-related quality of life. There shall be strengthened long-term physical and psychosocial domains (generic) intervention for burn survivors by giving more concern for those with the identified risk factors.