Food Insecurity and Associated Factors among Adult HIV Positives Attending Antiretroviral Therapy in Public Health Facilities of Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Food insecurity is prevalent among people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in sub-Saharan Africa countries. There, more than half of HIV- infected individuals are food insecured. Even though some studies have been done on the nutritional status of HIV patients, few have addressed the magnitude of food insecurity and the associated factors among adults on antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, the main aims of this study is assess the magnitude of food insecurity and the associated factors among adults on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Public Health facilities in Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 09 to February 09, 2018 on 415 adult HIV positives attending antiretroviral treatment at randomly selected five public health facilities in Kembata Tembaro Zone. The study subjects were selected from each facility proportionally and by simple random sampling technique. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were made to identify the independent factors associated with the households’ food insecurity. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was estimated to measure the strength of association. Level of statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. Results: The magnitude of food insecurity was 57.3% (52.4-62.1), of which 13.3%, 26.6% and 17.4% mild, moderate were and severely food insecured respectively. Monthly income <1000 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) (AOR=10.88; 95% CI:6.6, 18), presence of opportunistic infections (OIs) (AOR=2.16; 95% CI: 1.04, 4.5), presence of another family member with HIV (AOR=2.33; 95% CI:1.4, 3.86), absence of support from organization (AOR=2.36; 95% CI: 1.3, 4.2) and clinical stage III and IV (AOR =2.99; 95% CI:1.44, 6.2) were factors associated with food insecurity. Conclusion: Food insecurity is a significant problem among HIV positives. These result could call multi-sectoral collaboration to alleviate the problem among ART attendants, strengthen screening and treating patients for opportunistic infections (OIs) and also integrate ART programs with food security intervention. Keywords: Food Insecurity, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, People Living with HIV, ART, Ethiopi