Dietary practices and associated factors among Adults on antiretroviral therapy in jimma Medical center, south west ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Despite the fact that much has been done to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS, it remains a public health threat, with more than 75 million people infected worldwide and more than 32 million deaths from the disease associated with AIDS. Nutritional problems are a strong predictor of illness and death in People Living with HIV/AIDS. Despite many researches, problems related to malnutrition remain a challenge. This study was therefore carried out to determine the nutritional practices and factors affecting it among HIV positive adults who were attending antiretroviral therapy clinic in Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess dietary practices and associated factors among HIV positive adults on ART in Jimma medical center from June 1 to July 31, 2022. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling. A total of 325 HIV patients were included in the study. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic, socioeconomic characteristics, Behavior, health status, food security status and dietary practices. After coding and checked for quality data was entered into EpiData software, version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the effect of the various factors on dietary practices. P-value ≤ 0.05 at 95% CI was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 316 were participated in this study making the response rate 97.2%. The study revealed that majority (62.3%) and (37.7%) of respondents had Poor and Good dietary practices respectively. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that level of education [AOR=0.041, 95%CI (0.025-0.188)] wealth index [AOR=0.142, 95%CI (0.038-0.523)] and food security status [AOR=3.208, 95%CI (1.319-7.804)] were significantly associated with poor dietary practices. Conclusion: The level of Poor Dietary practices was high among HIV positive adults receiving antiretroviral therapy at Jimma medical center, South West Ethiopia and significantly associated with low literacy status, low wealth index and food insecurity status were the significant factors