Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1376235
This article is part of the Research Topic Inequities and Disparities in Reproductive Health: HIV and STIs View all 9 articles

Magnitude and determinants of HIV among reproductive-age women (15-49 years age) in Africa from 2010-2019: A multilevel analysis of Demographic and Health Survey

Provisionally accepted
Alemu Gedefie Alemu Gedefie 1*Amare Muche Amare Muche 2Anissa Mohammed Anissa Mohammed 2Aznamariam Ayres Aznamariam Ayres 2Dagnachew Melak Dagnachew Melak 2Eyob Tilahun Abeje Eyob Tilahun Abeje 2Fekade Demeke Bayou Fekade Demeke Bayou 2Fekadeselassie Belege Fekadeselassie Belege 2Lakew Asmare Lakew Asmare 2Abel Endawkie Abel Endawkie 2
  • 1 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, college of Medicine and health sciences, Wollo University, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia
  • 2 Wollo University, Dessie, Amhara, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: HIV remains the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. HIV is disproportionately higher in Sub-Saharan African regions, particularly the Southern African sub-region, which is the most affected region and accounts for 77% of all new HIV infections in this region. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the determinants of HIV among reproductive-age women in Africa.Methods: This study was conducted on reproductive-age women in Africa, based on the secondary data obtained from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2010-2019. The outcome variable was HIV status while individual and community level variables were potential predictors. The model's fitness was assessed using Akaike's Information Criterion, Bayesian Information Criterion, and -2Log likelihood. Then, multilevel mixed effect analysis was used. Intra-cluster correlation coefficient, median odds ratio, and proportional change in variance were used to measure heterogeneity between clusters.Results: A total of 292,810 unweighted and 293,773 weighted reproductive-age women in 26 African nations were included in this study. The overall prevalence of HIV among reproductive-age women in Africa was 4.34% (95% CI: 4.2, 4.4%). The highest percentage of HIV was found in Lesotho (23.98%), followed by South Africa (19.12%) and Mozambique (14.67%). However, the lowest HIV prevalence was found in Niger (0.54%), Senegal (0.59%), and Burundi (0.79%). Southern Africa contain the predominant HIV burden (18.5%), followed by Eastern Africa (6.1%), while Western African countries had the least HIV burden. Increasing maternal age, higher maternal education, women who hadn't worked, history of multiple sexual partners, women who were in union, community-level educational status, community-level wealth index, African sub-region, and urban residence were found to be independent predictors of HIV infection in Africa.The burden of HIV has remained higher, highlighting the need for targeted public health intervention strategies to prevent the transmission of HIV among key populations.

    Keywords: Africa, DHS, HIV, Multilevel Analysis, Reproductive-age women

    Received: 25 Jan 2024; Accepted: 31 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gedefie, Muche, Mohammed, Ayres, Melak, Abeje, Bayou, Belege, Asmare and Endawkie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alemu Gedefie, Department of Medical Laboratory Science, college of Medicine and health sciences, Wollo University, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.