OBJECTIVE:

To determine the sexual and contraceptive practice of female Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS.

METHODS:

Structured questionnaire was administered to 146 women confirmed to be HIV positive and attending the dermatology clinic of University of Benin Teaching Hospital for care. The questionnaire was self administered with assistance when necessary. SPSS 10.0 for windows was used to processed and analyzed the data. Chi square tet was used to determine significant difference in proportions between subgroups. Binomial logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the likelihood of specified categories of respondents to report sexual activity and condom utilization. A p value of 0.05 or less was considered significant.

RESULTS:

Seventy-three (50%) of the 146 respondents were still sexually active post HIV diagnosis and 5(3.5%) of them had multiple sexual partners. Age group of 30-39, increasing level of education, marriage partners awareness, retroviral positive partners and antiretroviral treatment for >12 months were associated with increased reported sexual activity. About 93% of the respondents were aware of contraception while only 55.5% use condom prior to HIV diagnosis and only 50.7% of the sexually active respondents post HIV diagnosis used the condom with low consistency. Condom utilization was less likely amongst the older respondents, married respondents and those whose partners were retroviral positive. Duration on antiretroviral treatment did not affect likelihood of condom use.

CONCLUSION:

One half of Nigerian women living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral drugs are still sexually active but their condom utilization is low. This behavior may engender further spread of the disease.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Highly active antiretroviral therapy, sexually activity, condom utilization