Influence of Male Partners on HIV Disclosure Among South African Women in a Cluster Randomized PMTCT Intervention

• Published in: AIDS and behavior Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 604 - 614
• Main Authors: Abbamonte, John M., Parrish, Manasi S., Lee, Tae K., Ramlagan, Shandir, Sifunda, Sibusiso, Peltzer, Karl, Weiss, Stephen M., Jones, Deborah L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-02-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Child; Disclosure; Disease prevention; Female; Health Psychology; HIV; HIV Infections - prevention & control; HIV Infections - transmission; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infant; Infants; Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical - prevention & control; Infectious Diseases; Intervention; Male; Maternal & child health; Maternal and infant welfare; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Original Paper; Prevention; Public Health; Sexual Partners; South Africa - epidemiology; Women; Womens health; South Africa; Sudáfrica; PMTCT; Revelación de estado de VIH; Stigma; Estigma; HIV disclosure; Depresión; South Africa; Depression
• ISSN: 1090-7165; 1573-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10461-020-03021-x

Disclosure of HIV serostatus is beneficial for women, their partners, and their infants as it enables women to actively participate in preventative care (Hodgson et al. in PLoS ONE 9(11):e111421, 2014; Odiachi et al. in Reprod Health 15(1):36, 2018). Therefore, it is important that interventions addressing HIV prevention include elements that foster disclosure of HIV to partners. This study conducted in South Africa utilizes the “Protect Your Family” (PYF) behavioral intervention and compares Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) among women participating in the program versus those in a control program. Within both groups, male partners were either present or not present for the intervention. The purpose of this study was to examine differential disclosure over time for individuals in the different conditions and partner involvement. A firth logistic regression revealed an interaction in the experimental condition with male partners participating (
b
 = − 2.84,
SE 
= 1.56,
p 
= .012), in which female participants were less likely to disclose their HIV status over time. Findings from this study illustrate that additional efforts are needed to empower women to disclose their HIV status.