Knowledge, attitudes and practices of trained traditional birth attendants on HIV/AIDS, Kenya

Abstract

HIV and AIDS is a global pandemic with cases being reported from virtually every country in the world. There is a growing awareness in many African countries that the Trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TTBAs) have a major role to play in the transmission and prevention of HIV and AIDS. This is because of the bigger proportion of TTBAs attending to mothers at birth compared to trained health workers. The purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of TTBAs on HIV/ AIDS transmission and prevention.A cross sectional survey was conducted.The study population consisted of 64 TTBAs from Kosirai Division, Nandi Central, Kenya. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data on knowledge, attitudes and practices on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention from August 15 to September 11, 2008. The study revealed that TTBAs had good knowledge, tend to have positive attitudes, and safe practices on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. There exist significant relationships between knowledge and practices (p=.018), and practices and attitudes (p=.022) of TTBAs on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, but there is no significant relationship between knowledge and attitudes (p=.994) of TTBAs on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. Considering the roles of TTBAs in maternal child health as revealed by this study, the study therefore recommends to the government and non-governmental organization to appreciate the role of the TTBAs in health care delivery system.