Introduction
The World Health Organization defines family planning as the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births, achieved through the use of contraceptive methods. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors associated with the use of contraceptive methods among women living with HIV (WLHIV) at the Yaoundé Jamot Hospital.
Methodology
This was a cross-sectional study of women ≥ 21 years living with HIV enrolled in the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) receiving care and treatment at the Yaoundé Jamot Hospital from January 2016 to May 2022. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with status disclosure. Variables with p <0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results
Of the 2991 women included, 33.3% were using contraceptive methods. The mean(SD) age was 41.8 (10.5) years. Among those using contraceptive methods, 20.1% were married, 58.2% had the desire to have children, 45.3% had 1-2 children already and 51.8% were diagnosed for more than a year. The most used contraceptive methods were condoms (19.9%), followed by natural rhythm method (5.3%), oral contraceptive (1.2%) and implant (0.9%). Factors that were statistically significantly associated with the use of contraceptive methods were women in the age group 40-49 years [aOR 2.0, 95%CI=1.3-3.2] compared to those aged 50 years and above and having an HIV diagnosis of ≥5 years [aOR 1.9, 95%CI=1.2 – 3.1] compared to those of diagnosed < 1year.
Conclusion
We found that only 1/3rd of WLHIV enrolled in our study used contraceptive methods. More than half of these women desired to have more children. The specific factors that have been found to statistically increase the use of contraceptive methods include ageing and long duration since HIV diagnosis.