Publication Details

AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS

SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH

medicine

Fertility intentions and reproductive health care needs of people living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa: Implications for integrating reproductive health and HIV Care services

AIDS and Behavior, Volume 13, No. SUPPL. 1, Year 2009

Tailoring sexual and reproductive health services to meet the needs of people living with the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) is a growing concern but there are few insights into these issues where HIV is most prevalent. This cross-sectional study investigated the fertility intentions and associated health care needs of 459 women and men, not sampled as intimate partners of each other, living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. An almost equal proportion of women (55%) and men (43%) living with HIV, reported not intending to have children as were open to the possibility of having children (45 and 57%, respectively). Overall, greater intentions to have children were associated with being male, having fewer children, living in an informal settlement and use of antiretroviral therapy. There were important gender differences in the determinants of future childbearing intentions, with being on HAART strongly associated with women's fertility intentions. Gender differences were also apparent in participants' key reasons for wanting children. A minority of participants had discussed their reproductive intentions and related issues with HIV health care providers. There is an urgent need for intervention models to integrate HIV care with sexual and reproduction health counseling and services that account for the diverse reproductive needs of these populations. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Statistics
Citations: 242
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Research Areas
Infectious Diseases
Maternal And Child Health
Sexual And Reproductive Health
Study Design
Randomised Control Trial
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative
Study Locations
South Africa
Participants Gender
Male
Female