Relationship between maternal levels of education and literacy with knowledge about mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV among women of reproductive age from urban oromia in Ethiopia

In 2009, approximately 370,000 children were infected with HIV, more than 90% were infected through MTCT (1). In the absence of any intervention, the risk of MTCT during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding ranges from 15-45% (2). Prior to the use of antiretroviral treatment (ART), HIV was responsible for 35.2% of child mortality within the first year of birth and 52.5% by age two (3). This research assessed the knowledge of a) MTCT through breastfeeding, pregnancy and delivery and b) the use of ART for the prevention of MTCT. This research utilized secondary data from the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (4). Women living in the urban Oromia region were selected from an initial sample of 16, 702 nationally, resulting in a sample size of 358. Data were analyzed using Bivariate Analysis such as the ANOVA test, to examine the association of the knowledge of MTCT and ART and levels of maternal education and literacy. Results suggest that education and literacy levels are associated with knowledge of MTCT through breastfeeding and ART—mothers who had higher levels of education and who were more literate were more likely to know about the two (chi-square results in education, literacy and MTCT through breastfeeding p=. 001, education, literacy and ART p=. 000). However there was no association between education and knowledge of MTCT during pregnancy and delivery. These results indicate that interventions in sub-Saharan Africa should strive to increase awareness of MTCT through breastfeeding transmission and the use of ART to prevent MTCT.