Dietary diversity and associated factors among HIV positive adults attending antiretroviral therapy clinics at Hiwot Fana and Dilchora Hospitals, eastern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Nutritional care is considered a crucial component of comprehensive care for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), particularly in resource-limited settings where malnutrition and food insecurity are endemic problems, and low quality monotonous diets are the norm. The findings of this study provide baseline information on dietary diversity and related factors for health care providers so that they will be able to improve nutritional care and support activity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess dietary diversity and associated factors among HIV positive adults (18–65 years old) attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics at Hiwot Fana and Dilchora Hospitals, eastern Ethiopia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2015 to February 2016 at the ART clinics of Hiwot Fana and Dilchora Hospitals. Using a systematic random sampling technique, a total of 303 patients were selected from all adults attending the ART clinics. The data were collected with a 95% CI used to show association between dietary diversity and independent factors. RESULTS: A total of 303 adult HIV positive individuals on ART participated in the study and 62.4% were females. The largest numbers of participants (49.5%) were 30–40 years of age. Eighty-seven (28.7%) participants had low dietary diversity (≤4 food groups). Duration of anti-retroviral treatment was the factor significantly associated with dietary diversity: respondents with a duration of antiretroviral treatment of more than 2 years were almost two times more likely to have high dietary diversity compared with those with less than a year of antiretroviral treatment (adjusted odds ratio =0.490; 95% CI: 0.091, 0.978). CONCLUSION: Low dietary diversity was found to be a nutritional problem among HIV positive adults. Duration of antiretroviral treatment was the predictor of low dietary diversity. Therefore, appropriate dietary management of side effects of ART is important.