An analysis of factors affecting pregnant woman's use of prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission services in urban setting

The Indonesian government has provided an integrated counseling and HIV testing service to prevent MTCT (Mother to Child Transmission) of HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, many pregnant women do not take benefit of this service. The study was to understand the reasons why women refuse to participate in preventing MTCT in Medan, Indonesia.

This is case-control study, conducted in the working area of Padang Bulan Health Centre (Puskesmas) in the city of Medan. As many as 65 pregnant women willing to take the HIV test are selected as “the case group” while 65 unwilling as “the control group.” Variables considered in this casecontrol study are socio-demography, knowledge, attitude and husband's support.

Knowledge, attitude, and husband's support variables of the case and control groups are significantly different (p<0, 05). Supporting husband variable is extremely important since a wife should ask her husband for approval before taking the test. In the final result, the attitude variable obtains OR 3, 27 (95% CI: 1, 50-7, 11) while the husband's support variable, OR 4, 85 (95% CI: 2, 08–11, 29).

Pregnant woman's decision to take HIV test is closely related to her and her husband's decision. Therefore, those who are in charge of the MTCT program should be able to convince pregnant women of the importance of HIV test, and encourage husbands to be more supportive in taking care of their wives’ health matters.