Knowledge of Rural Married Women on Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (MTCT) HIV in Udupi. Mrs. Suja Karkada MCON, Manipal.

Introduction and background of the study India is a country with 74% of the population in the rural areas. Women are the change agents. Their knowledge matters for the family. Knowledge of mother can prevent the chances of getting communicable disease.

Contd. HIV/AIDS is one of the diseases which could be prevented rather than treated. HIV could be transfred to a fetus without its knowledge from its mother. If the mother is caring, and has a better attitude for her generation, her knowledge will be utilized for prevention.

Mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV occurs in 25-30% of the cases in the uterus % of the cases either during delivery and breast feeding 1. Perinatal HIV transmission is the most common route of HIV infection in children and is now the source of almost all AIDS cases in children in US (2005).

HIV/AIDS was diagnosed for an estimated 142 children less than 13 years old who had been infected with HIV perinatlly. An estimated 6,051 persons who had been infected with HIV perinatlly were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005.

Of the estimated 68 children for whom AIDS was diagnosed during 2005, an estimated 67 had been infected with HIV perinatally (US) 2. In India due to inherent economic diversity MTCT rates ranges from: 24% in Mumbai to as high as 48% among tribal women 3.

Objectives of the study 1.To assess the knowledge of married rural women. 2.To find the association between knowledge and selected variables.

Hypothesis: There will be an association between the knowledge and selected variables at 0.05 level of significance.

Materials and methods This study was conducted using a descriptive survey approach. Conveniently selected 60 married women, with one or more children were selected as the sample.

Contd. The study setting was Udyavar village of Udupi district. Administrative permission was obtained and informed consent was taken from every women.

Data collection tool was developed by the investigator. 1.A tool to identify the demographic data a 2.A tool to collect the knowledge of the women on prevention of mother to child transmission (MTCT) Constructed tools were validated.

Data were collected by the investigator personally. Collected data were fed into SPSS version 11.0 for analysis. Based on the objectives the analyses of the data were done using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results of the study

Table-1- sample characteristics n=60 Sl.n o. Characteristicsf% 1Age in <=30 years > Primary High school PUC Graduate Age at marriage <=25 >

Demographic data S.no.Characteristicsf% 1Married life in years <=5 years >5 years Type of familyNuclear Joint

Knowledge of mothers

Mean &medians of variables VariablesMeanMedian Age in years Age at marriage in years Married life in years Knowledge scores

Knowledge of women on MTCT Data on knowledge showed that 81.7% had a score of 6 or above, indicating good knowledge about PTCT of HIV. Mean and median score of knowledge were 8.7(sd=0.390) & 9 respectively.

Chi-Square analysis No.VariablesKnowledgeχ2χ2p < 6>6 1Age in <=30 Years > Age at Years of <=5 married life >

Association between knowledge and selected variables Chi- square was computed between knowledge and selected variables. None of the values were significant at 0.05 level of significance. This indicates that knowledge of women were independent of their demographic variables.

Conclusion The study concludes that the knowledge on MTCT among married women was good Indicating that the educations given by the health care workers and mass media was effective in creating knowledge among them. This is good for a healthy community, since mothers transfer their knowledge to their children. The study could be done further by using an intervention group.

This is good for a healthy community, since mothers transfer their knowledge to their children. The study could be done further by using an intervention group.

References 1.'Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in resource-poor countries: translating research into policy and practice', De Cock et al, JAMA 283(9), March 2000Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in resource-poor countries: translating research into policy and practice 2.'AIDS epidemic update', UNAIDS/WHO, December 2005AIDS epidemic update 3.National AIDS Control Organization. World Health Organization, UNAIDS. 2.5 million people in India living with HIV according to new estimates. Available at: ww.data.unaids.org/pub/PressRelease/2007/ indiapressreleaseen.pdf. Accessed on August 12, ww.data.unaids.org/pub/PressRelease/2007/070706