Determinants of HIV status disclosure to children living with HIV in coastal Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT

The caregivers of HIV-positive children either delay or avoid disclosure of HIV status to the child due to several reasons. Keeping the child’s HIV status a secret puts them at considerable risk of stopping therapy and transmitting HIV to others. Hence this study was conducted to assess the determinants of disclosure of HIV status to infected children in coastal Karnataka. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a District Hospital in Coastal Karnataka from October 2014 to July 2015. One hundred eighty-five caregivers were recruited for the study purposively and interviewed using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire after written informed consent. Of the 185 caregivers interviewed, 78 (42%) caregivers had not disclosed the HIV status to the child. The child being too young was the most common reason for non-disclosure of HIV status. The majority of the caregivers intended to disclose the HIV status fully to the child after the child attained ten years of age. Nearly two-thirds of the caregivers wanted to disclose it themselves in their own homes. The significant determinants of disclosure of HIV status were the age of the child, and person involved in childcare, and the venue of the disclosure.

KEYWORDS:

• Disclosure
• HIV seropositivity
• HIV/AIDS
• caregivers
• adolescent

Acknowledgments

The authors are extremely grateful to the ART center of Dakshina Kannada district for assisting in recruiting the caregivers and assisting in the data collection process. The authors would also like to thank the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) for permitting the conduct of the study. The authors are indebted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for approving the study for the MD/MS Thesis grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for the MD/MS Thesis grant vide letter No.3/2/Nov.2014/PG-Thesis-HRD (2) dated 1.12.2014.