Infant feeding practice and associated factors among HIV positive mothers in Debre Markos Referral Hospital East Gojam zone, North West Ethiopia.
BACKGROUND
The dilemma posed between lifesaving benefit and risk of transmission through breast feeding complicates infant feedings among communities grossly affected by HIV/AIDS. According to the world health organization's guideline which was revised in 2010, exclusive breast feeding and exclusive replacement feeding are the recommended infant feeding practices for HIV positive mothers. The aim of this study was to assess infant feeding practice and associated factors among HIV positive mothers in Debre Markos Referral Hospital, North West Ethiopia.


METHODS
An institutional based cross sectional study was conducted from May to September 2013. A Randomly selected 260 HIV positive mothers were included. The data were collected by using a pretested and structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were performed to check association and to control confounders.


RESULTS
From a total of 260 HIV positive mothers, 85.8% of them were feeding their children based on the recommended feeding way of infant feeding practice with the remaining percentage 14.2% were practicing mixed feeding. In multivariate analysis mothers attending high school and above AOR = 5.3 [95% CI = 1.25-22.1], having antenatal care follow up AOR = 5.5 [95% CI = 1.5-20.16], being on anti-retro viral therapy AOR = 6.5 [95% CI = 1.88-22.51] and disclosure of HIV status AOR = 7.1 [95% CI = 1.26-39.76] were found to be independently associated with infant feeding practice.


CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed that large proportion of HIV positive mothers had followed the recommended infant feeding practice and significantly high number of mothers had practiced mixed feeding. Educating mothers, increasing ANC utilization, counseling mothers to start ART, encouraging and supporting mothers to disclose their HIV status were recommended.
School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health and Medical science, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia.
Elias Bekele
EB
Wakwoya
Ethiopian Midwives association, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Tatek Abate
TA
Zewudie
Department of Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Kahsay Zenebe
KZ
Gebresilasie
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005002:Ethiopia; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D055815:Young Adult
HIV; factors; feeding; infant; practice