Human immunodeficiency virus positive status disclosure among children in northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Human Immunodeficiency Virus positive status disclosure is an essential component of pediatric care and longterm disease management. However, one of the greatest challenges that caregiver/mothers and health care workers face is the disclosure of HIV positive status to children living with the virus. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess HIV positive status disclosure and associated factors among HIV positive children in northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 417 sampled HIV positive children attending pediatric ART clinics of public health facilities from February 01 to March 30 2020 in northwest Ethiopia. Simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants. A structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection and the collected data entered into Epi data software. Binary logistic regression analysis was done and variables with P-value <0.05 was considered as a significant predictors of HIV positive status disclosure of HIV positive children. RESULT: From 417 sampled population, 390 were involved in this study making 93.5% response rate. The study revealed that 53.6% with 95% CI (0.486-0.586) of HIV positive children knew their HIV positive sero status. Caregiver/mothers who had greater than three family sizes (AOR=1.984, 95% CI=1.046-3.762), children whose ages greater than 10 years (AOR=6.679, 95% CI=3.372-13.227) and children on ART for more than 5 years (AOR=8.96, 95% CI=6.402-12.257) were predictors of HIV positive status disclosure. CONCLUSION: The HIV positive status disclosure was high in the study area relative to other studies. Family size, children age, and length of children on ART were predictors of HIV positive status disclosure for HIV positive children. Health care providers, especially those working at pediatrics ART clinics should keep these factors in mid while working with caregivers to encourage disclosure of HIV positive status.