Power to make decision and utilization of prevention of mother to child transmission services

Ethiopia is one of the countries hard-hit by Human Immunio-deficiency Virus/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Amhara region has the largest proportion of HIV positive women, HIV positive live births and AIDS orphans. Prevention to Mother to Child Transmission Program (PMTCT) utilization is below 10%. In this study, power in decision making and PMTCT service utilization was estimated in order to identify the predictive variable for service uptake. Interviews were conducted in 252 households selected at random in a cluster sample. Sixty (24%) of women had history of utilizing voluntary counseling and testing service for HIV and 48 (80%) were accepted their test result. Thirty six mothers (14.3%) had ever participated in PMTCT services. Nearly one third 84 (33%) of husbands believed that their wife's should get their permission before accessing PMTCT services. And a little higher than half 136(54%) of women believed they should get permission from their husbands before utilizing PMTCT services. Among the study participants those who attend formal schooling utilized four fold than illiterate with AOR= 4.0 (95% CI 1.46 – 7.52). And women who had the power to decide on utilization of PMTCT services 2.5 times utilize PMTCT services [ AOR 2.5 (95 %CI 1.27 – 3.15) ] than those who were looking for permission of their husbands. Promotion of PMTCT services and empowering women on decision making to utilize the health services are recommended

Key words: PMTCT, VCT, HIV/AIDS, Ethiopia