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Factors Associated with Non-disclosure of HIV Status in a Cohort of Childbearing HIV-Positive Women in Ukraine

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Abstract

Ukraine has one of the largest populations of persons living with HIV in Europe. Data on 2019 HIV-positive married or cohabiting women enrolled in a postnatal cohort from 2007 to 2012 were analysed to investigate prevalence and factors associated with self-reported non-disclosure of HIV status. Median age at enrolment was 27.5 years, with two-thirds diagnosed during their most recent pregnancy. Almost all had received antenatal antiretroviral therapy and 24 % were taking it currently. One-tenth (n = 198) had not disclosed their HIV status to their partner and 1 in 20 (n = 93) had disclosed to no-one. Factors associated with non-disclosure were: unmarried status (AOR 2.99 (95 % CI 1.51–5.92), younger age at leaving full-time education (AOR 0.41 (95 % CI 0.19–0.88) for ≥19 years vs ≤16 years) and lack of knowledge of partner’s HIV status (AOR 2.01 (95 % CI 1.09–3.66). Further work is needed to support disclosure in some groups and to explore relationships between disclosure and psychological factors in this setting, including depression, lack of support and perception of stigma.

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Acknowledgments

The Ukraine Cohort of HIV-infected childbearing women Study Group consists of the following members: T. Pilipenko, A. Zayats, (Perinatal Prevention of AIDS Initiative, Odessa), Dr S. Posokhova (Regional Hospital, Odessa), Dr T. Kaleeva, Dr Y. Barishnikova, Dr S. Servetsky, Dr R. Teretsenko (Odessa Regional Centre for HIV/AIDS), Dr S. Solokha, Dr M. P. Grazhdanov, Dr E. Kulakovskaya (Donetsk Regional Centre for HIV/AIDS), Dr I. Raus, Dr O. V. Yurchenko, Dr I. Adeyanova (Kiev City Centre for HIV/AIDS), Dr Z Ruban, Dr O Govorun, Dr O Ostrovskaya, Dr I Kochergina, (Mykolaiv Regional Centre for HIV/AIDS), Dr L Kvasha, Dr G Kruglenko, Dr. N. Primak (Kriviy Rig City Center for HIV/AIDS). Claire Thorne held a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship 2007–2012, which provided support for the Ukraine Cohort of HIV-infected Childbearing Women (grant number 081082). The ECS receives funding from the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under EuroCoord grant agreement n° 260694. Some of this work was undertaken at GOSH/UCL Institute of Child Health which received a proportion of funding from the UK Department of Health’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme. Funders were not involved in the study design, execution or analysis or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication, and the authors maintain full control of all primary data. The ECS has approval from the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust/Institute of Child Health Research Ethics Committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Policy and Practice Programme, UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, UK

    Jane V. Ahn, Heather Bailey & Claire Thorne

  2. Perinatal Prevention of AIDS Initiative, Odessa, Ukraine

    Ruslan Malyuta

  3. Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Kiev, Ukraine

    Alla Volokha

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Correspondence to Claire Thorne.

Supplementary EuroCoord Appendix

Supplementary EuroCoord Appendix

EuroCoord Executive Board: Fiona Burns, University College London, UK; Geneviève Chêne, University of Bordeaux, France; Dominique Costagliola (Scientific Coordinator), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, France; Carlo Giaquinto, Fondazione PENTA, Italy; Jesper Grarup, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark; Ole Kirk, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark; Laurence Meyer, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, France; Heather Bailey, University College London, UK; Alain Volny Anne, European AIDS Treatment Group, France; Alex Panteleev, St. Petersburg City AIDS Centre, Russian Federation; Andrew Phillips, University College London, UK, Kholoud Porter, University College London, UK; Claire Thorne, University College London, UK.

EuroCoord Council of Partners: Jean-Pierre Aboulker, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, France; Jan Albert, Karolinska Institute, Sweden; Silvia Asandi, Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation, Romania; Geneviève Chêne, University of Bordeaux, France; Dominique Costagliola (chair), INSERM, France; Antonella d’Arminio Monforte, ICoNA Foundation, Italy; Stéphane De Wit, St. Pierre University Hospital, Belgium; Peter Reiss, Stichting HIV Monitoring, Netherlands; Julia Del Amo, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain; José Gatell, Fundació Privada Clínic per a la Recerca Bíomèdica, Spain; Carlo Giaquinto, Fondazione PENTA, Italy; Osamah Hamouda, Robert Koch Institut, Germany; Igor Karpov, University of Minsk, Belarus; Bruno Ledergerber, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Jens Lundgren, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark; Ruslan Malyuta, Perinatal Prevention of AIDS Initiative, Ukraine; Claus Møller, Cadpeople A/S, Denmark; Kholoud Porter, University College London, United Kingdom; Maria Prins, Academic Medical Centre, Netherlands; Aza Rakhmanova, St. Petersburg City AIDS Centre, Russian Federation; Jürgen Rockstroh, University of Bonn, Germany; Magda Rosinska, National Institute of Public Health, National Institute of Hygiene, Poland; Manjinder Sandhu, Genome Research Limited; Claire Thorne, University College London, UK; Giota Touloumi, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; Alain Volny Anne, European AIDS Treatment Group, France.

EuroCoord External Advisory Board: David Cooper, University of New South Wales, Australia; Nikos Dedes, Positive Voice, Greece; Kevin Fenton, Public Health England, USA; David Pizzuti, Gilead Sciences, USA; Marco Vitoria, World Health Organisation, Switzerland.

EuroCoord Secretariat: Silvia Faggion, Fondazione PENTA, Italy; Lorraine Fradette, University College London, UK; Richard Frost, University College London, UK; Andrea Cartier, University College London, UK; Dorthe Raben, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark; Christine Schwimmer, University of Bordeaux, France; Martin Scott, UCL European Research & Innovation Office, UK.

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Ahn, J.V., Bailey, H., Malyuta, R. et al. Factors Associated with Non-disclosure of HIV Status in a Cohort of Childbearing HIV-Positive Women in Ukraine. AIDS Behav 20, 174–183 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1089-8

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