Knowledge and perceptions about Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, mother-to-child transmission of HIV and HIV prevalence among antenatal attendees of a Ghanaian tertiary health institution: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Ghana has high antenatal coverage rates with the nation's antenatal care policy aiming to provide information on health topics including HIV/AIDS. This study sought to assess the knowledge and perceptions about HIV infection including mother-to-child transmission of HIV among antenatal attendees of a tertiary health facility. It also assessed the uptake of HIV testing as well as prevalence of HIV among the participants.

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Participants were antenatal attendees of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Participants were interviewed using structured questionnaires covering socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics with administration of an HIV knowledge test with questions covering transmission and treatment. Knowledge of mother-to-child transmission and its prevention and participants' perceptions of PLHIV as well as pre-pregnancy HIV testing rates and HIV prevalence among attendees were also assessed.

RESULTS: In this study, all participants demonstrated knowledge of HIV, while 93.8% of them knew about mother-to-child transmission. Approximately 94.8% of participants had adequate knowledge of HIV. Adequate knowledge of HIV was found to be significantly associated with age, marital status, level of education and the number of children of the participant. TV/radio was the main avenue for first exposure to HIV knowledge. This study also found that the majority of participants did not harbour negative views about people living with HIV. Almost all (98.2%) participants had tested for HIV in their current pregnancy with HIV prevalence of 3.3% (95% CI: 1.2-5.5%).

CONCLUSION: HIV knowledge among antenatal attendees at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is generally high, with most participants demonstrating adequate knowledge. However, understanding of mother-to-child transmission is still limited in some areas and needs to be improved through enhanced antenatal health education. Strengthening health education during antenatal care-particularly on the modes, effects and prevention of mother-to-child transmission is crucial to realizing global HIV/AIDS elimination goals.