Factors Responsible for Disclosure of HIV Seropositivity among Residents of Cross River State, Nigeria.

CONTEXT: Disclosure of HIV-positive status to sex partners is viewed as a preventive measure and as a social and legal responsibility for HIV-infected individuals.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to determine the proportions and factors responsible for disclosure of HIV seropositivity among residents of Cross River State, Nigeria.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional comparative study.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: It involved 320 HIV-positive individuals equally selected from the urban and rural settings of Cross River State and use questionnaires.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data analysis used SPSS version 20.0. Chi-square test and logistic regression were used to identify determinants of HIV status disclosure.

RESULTS: Among urban respondents, 93.8% had disclosed compared with 79.4% among rural respondents, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). There was a statistically significant association between HIV status disclosure and age (P = 0.008), marital status (P = 0.027), number of nonspousal sexual partner (P = 0.006), and area of residence (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant association between HIV status disclosure and gender (P = 0.622), between occupation (P = 0.495) or income (P = 0.351 and head of household (P = 0.241). There was statistically significant association between HIV status disclosure and level of education (P = 0.015), house ownership (P = 0.008), time from diagnosis (P = 0.003), and duration of treatment (P = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that HIV seropositive status disclosure was higher when compared with other local studies, and age, marital status, and area of residence were factors associated with HIV seropositive status disclosure.