Abstract:
Background: Even though, the disclosure of HIV sero- status to sexual partners, friends or relatives is the main tool
for prevention and care strategies, most of the HIV/AIDS patients do not inform their close friends. The most
common reasons for not disclosure of their status to the community were majorly fear of social rejection and
discriminations. Therefore, this study assessed the HIV positive sero-status disclosure and its determinants among
People Living with HIV /AIDS (PLWH/A) followed by the Antiretroviral therapy (ART) Clinic in Jimma University
Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia.
Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study design was used among 351 ART patients that selected by
systematic random sampling from ART clinic of Jimma University Specialized Hospital in March-2014. Data were
collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 software. In a
descriptive analysis frequency, mean and percentage were calculated. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used
to identify associated factors and the association between the explanatory and dependent variables was estimated.
Results: Only 37.6% (n = 132) were revealed their HIV positive status to anyone. Disclosure was done towards the
sexual partners (88.6%), close family (72.7%) and a larger population (18.2%). Age ≤ 39 years (AOR = 0.014 [95%, CI =
0.005, 0.037]),Male sex (AOR = 3.039, [95% CI = 1.164, 7.935]), WHO stage III – IV at ART start(AOR = 2.766, [95%,
CI = 1.321, 5.791]), presence of comorbidity (AOR = 2.500, [95%, CI = 1.483, 4.214]), having any clinical symptoms for
HIV(AOR = 2.98, [95%, CI = 1.724, 5.152]),Low physical domain related quality of life (AOR = 3.83, [95%, CI = 2.008, 7.315])
and high social domain related quality of life (AOR = 0.053, [95%, CI = 0.022, 0.125]) were statistically significant
association with their HIV sero-status disclosure.
Conclusions: Findings of this study indicated, the disclosure of HIV status is very low. Discloser is more likely
when the patient is older, male, and has a higher level of education. Clinical determinants for disclosure was
the WHO stage III-IV, treatment duration of ≥2 years, comorbidity, presence of clinical symptoms for HIV, low
physical domain related quality of life, low social domain related quality of life and low overall quality of life
