Attitude of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics towards HIV voluntary counseling and testing: a case of Temeke municipal health centers, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Unversity of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
This study explored the attitude of pregnant women and its effects towards Voluntary Counseling and HIV Testing uptake rate among pregnant women attending ante natal clinics. The study aimed to reveal to what extent level of knowledge pregnant have about VCT services, VCT counselors interaction and health center can influence the attitude of pregnant women towards VCT. This study adopted mainly qualitative with some elements of quantitative research design. A total number of 196 respondents were involved in this study. These included 158 pregnant women who fill in questionnaires from the selected health centers, 13 respondents participated in interview questions and 25 respondents participated in focus group discussion. The convenient technique was employed in selecting respondents from ante natal clinics providing VCT services. The data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussion. Qualitative data obtained from interview, and open ended questionnaire was recorded in a notebook and the content analysis was employed in interpreting and summarizing the identified important themes and patterns experiences in a narrative form. Some data recorded from focus group discussion were processed and analyzed during the actual field process to avoid doubt or occurrence of errors, and quantitative data obtained from close ended questionnaire during the field were tallied and calculated into frequencies and percentages to present the data in tabular form with the help of SPSS (Version 13.0) package. The findings of the study showed that respondents were knowledgeable about the existing voluntary counseling and testing services though less than a half reported to utilize services. The reasons for not volunteering to seek VCT services were that if they tested positive their spouse will divorce them, fear for stigmatization and discrimination from the member of community. The study recommends among other things, that in order to have effectively and accessible VCT services for pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics the provision of continuous education and sensitization is needed especially to couples and all members of community in order to help them to understand the benefits of VCT services, increasing a well trained VCT counselors and separation of VCT services from other services so as to make it valuable. The study recommends is need to carry out a broader investigation so as to capture the overall situation in relation to attitude of pregnant women and its effects towards Voluntary Counseling and HIV Testing uptake rate among pregnant women attending ante natal clinics in the county.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF BF327.T34A462)
Keywords
Attitude, Pregnant women, Voluntary counseling and testing, HIV, Temeke, Tanzania
Citation
Alex, V. (2010) Attitude of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics towards HIV voluntary counseling and testing: a case of Temeke municipal health centers, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam