ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE AMONG LACTATING HIV POSITIVE WOMENS ABOUT FEEDING OF INFANT IN WOLISO WOREDA, WOLISO, SOUTH WEST SHOA, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA:2023.

Abstract

Background: The world health organization advises on feeding practices on infants born to HIV infected mothers, aiming to ensure the safety of both the infant and the mother. These recommendations focus on preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child while also meeting the child’s nutritional needs. The approach involves giving priority to preventing HIV transmission through breastfeeding. Objective: This study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of mothers about feeding of infants born to HIV positive women. Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study design was conducted to assess the KAP of mothers about feeding of infants born to HIV positive lactating women among 319 women in Woliso woreda hospitals and health centers. Simple random sampling technique was used. Data was collected by face-to-face interview. The collected data were cleared checked, entered into, preprocessing and analyzed using text and results were summarize using texts and table by using IBM SPSS software.Result: A total of 293 participants were interviewed with a 100% response rate. The mean age of participants was 29.24 (SD±10.06) years. The overall level of participant good knowledge and favorable attitude was42.3% and 63.8%, respectively. Only 46.8% of mothers were practicing infant feeding according to WHO recommendation. Conclusion and recommendation: The findings indicate that while there is a considerable proportion of mothers with good knowledge, there are still gaps in understanding regarding their infant feeding practices and the risk of HIV transmission through breastfeeding. Interventions should concentrate on closing the disparity between possessing sufficient knowledge, holding favorable attitudes, and actually implementing the recommended practices by the responsible bodies like Woliso woreda health office, Local health authorities and healthcare facilities and hospital and health care workers.