Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

Assessment of Nutritional Status and Associated Factors among Prisoners Living with HIV/AIDS in Kality Prison, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Tsebaot Kassa, Atsede Alle and Mehret Tesfu

Introduction: In the case Human Immune Deficiency virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), prison conditions not only contribute to the risk of transmission, it also hastens the progression of HIV and deterioration in the health of prisoners living with HIV/AIDS. Prisons typically comprise marginalized sections of society and at high nutritional risk due to lack of diet diversity, as these prisoners depend on few kinds of food for a long time and in a situation, adequacy of nutritional requirement is a great issue of concern. Objective: To assess nutritional status and associated factors among prisoners living with HIV/AIDS in Kality prison, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2016. Method: Institution based cross sectional study design was conducted among randomly selected 412 prisoners on pre Anti-Retroviral Therapy and Anti-Retroviral Therapy in Kality prison, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from February to March, 2016. The data entered to Epi-info version 7.0 and export to Statistical Package for Social Science version 20.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics, binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed to identify nutritional status and associated factors that affect nutritional status of prisoners living with HIV/AIDS. Results: The overall magnitude of malnutrition was found to be 43% among prisoners living with HIV/AIDS. Female respondents were 92% times less likely to develop malnutrition than male respondents (AOR 0.08 [95% CI 0.02, 0.42) and those who were in the age range of ≥ 50 were eight times more likely to be malnourished with (AOR 8.68 [95% CI 1.59, 47.28]) than other age groups. Conclusion: The prevalence of underweight was very high among prisoners living with HIV/AIDS in this area. Recommendation: The prison administrative body should give emphasis on increasing diversified food and Proper nutritional assessment should be the vital part of HIV care management by health workers.