Health Workers' Knowledge of Preventing Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Health workers have important roles to play in reducing mother-to-child
transmission of HIV. This study assessed health workers' knowledge of the national
guidelines on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State,
Nigeria
Methodology: The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study
population comprised health workers providing services for preventing mother-to-child
transmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Data was collected through selfadministered
questionnaires.
Results: Two hundred and seventy health workers participated in the study comprising
doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and counsellors. All the respondents
had heard of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ninety-two (34.1%) had
received training on the national guidelines on preventing mother-to-child transmission
of HIV. The proportion of health workers with poor, fair, and good knowledge of the
national guidelines on PMTCT was 8.5%, 30.4% and 61.1% respectively. Knowledge of
the national guidelines was significantly associated with the health workers' occupation,
previous training on PMTCT and having a copy of the national guidelines.
Conclusion: This study highlighted important gaps in health workers knowledge of
PMTCT. Training and retraining of health workers remains crucial to achieving the goal
of reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The study findings may guide the
content of future training of health workers on PMTCT to ensure relevance and
adequacy.