Abstract:
Back ground: HIV screening is recommended by the health care providers as standard
medical care to detect unrecognized HIV infections and to create linkage to care,
treatment and support services for patients attending health facilities.
Objective: this study was designed to determine the magnitude of provision and
utilization PITC service and identifying factors that influence the acceptance of PITC
services among outpatient department patients.
Methods: facility based cross sectional study was conducted on 844 patients attending
outpatient department in Addis Ababa at five hospitals using pre-tested structured
questionnaires from February-March, 2011.
Results: The majority 61.6 %( 475) of respondents were females and their mean age
were 33.5+ 12.6(SD) years. The overall utilization rate was 27% and only 36.7% was
offered HIV testing and counseling by service providers. Patients offered HCT by
providers were five times more likely to accept HIV testing and counseling with {AOR
95%CI=4.8(2.7, 8.5). Those patients who did not know whether healthy looking
persons can have HIV infection and patients who were willing to maintain their
relationship if their partners become HIV positive were less likely to accept PITC with
{AOR95%CI=0.15(0.04, 0.52)} andAOR95%CI=0.53(0.30, 0.94)}. Patients who had
knowledge about healthy looking persons can have HIV infection had high PITC
acceptance with {AOR95%CI=2.01(1.01, 4.01)}. Patients from private facilities were
accepted PITC less than the public facilities {AOR= 0.38(0.21, 0.67)}. primary and
tertiary education had lower PITC acceptance rate with {AOR95%CI=0.17(0.04,0.71)
and 0.25(0.07,0.93)}.And patients having monthly income of 500- 1000birr were
more likely to be tested as compared to those who had lower income with {AOR95%CI
=4.32(1.31,14.2)}. Being house wife by occupation had higher PITC acceptance with
{AOR=3.95, 95%CI= (1.02, 15.3)}. The availability of free ART had higher PITC
acceptance rate with {AOR95%CI= 2.2(1.02, 4.63)}.
Conclusions and recommendations: The provision and utilization of PITC in the
outpatient department was low. So all providers should follow the guide lines and offer
HIV testing to all patients visiting health facilities irrespective of risk behaviors
