Socio-demographic and economic characteristics of study participants
A total of three hundred eighty eight study participants were involved; with a response rate of 92%. From the total participants, 250(64.4%) were females and the mean age was 34.74(SD± 9.23) years’. Among the total study groups, 146(37.6%) were in the age group of 30-39 years. More than half (64.4%) of the respondents were females. Regarding their residence, maximum of the respondents (89.7%) were come from urban area (Table 1).
Medication Related factor
From the total participants, 182 (46.9%) were taking ART containing AZT and 144(37.1%) of the respondents taken ART for 6-20 months and small proportion of respondents (16.2%) taken for more than five years (Table 2).
WHO staging and Comorbidity
The proportion of respondents categorized under WHO stage I, II, III and IV were 58%, 17%, 19% and 6% respectively. Forty-six (11.9%) of study participants had a history of malaria, 83(21.4%) of the study participant had a history of intestinal parasites and 23 (5.9%) of study participant had history of chronic illness. From the total participants, 163(42.0%) have had an opportunistic infection and 382(98.5%) were in working functional status.
Hematological and Nutritional Factor
The mean CD4 count of the respondents was 401± 186.5. The majority of the respondents (85.6%) have CD4 count >200cells/mm3 and 30 (7.7%) have had viral load >1000. Regarding the study participants nutritional status, nearly two third of the respondents (67%) had BMI at range of 18.5-24.9kg/m2 and the remaining 15.2% and 7.8% of the respondents have a BMI under the category of below 18kg/m2 and 25kg/m2 and above respectively.
The mean dietary diversity among study participant was 5.5±1.8. The number of food group consumed ranged from 1-9 and 52.8% of study participants having consumed above the mean (Table 3). Mean meal frequency among study participants was 3.6(±0.8). The range of meal frequency was 1-7 (Table 4).
Magnitude of Anemia among adult PLWHA patients taking ART
The mean ±SD hemoglobin level of study participant was 12.6 (±1.7). The overall magnitude of anemia among PLWHA in Jinka town public health facilities was130 (33.5%) ;( 95% CI: 28.8-38.1). Among those who were anemic, 69(17.8%) ;( 95% CI 14.0-21.6) had mild form of anemia, 53(13.7%); (95% CI: 10.3-17.1) moderate form of anemia and eight (2.1%) ;( 95% CI: 0.7-3.5) had severe form of anemia.
Among those who were anemic magnitude of anemia among adult male PLWHA, taking ART was 31.5% and female adult PLWHA taking ART was 68.5%.
Factors Associated with Anemia among study participant
Educational statuses, Type of ART drugs, CD4 count, History of opportunistic infection were significantly associated with Anemia. In this study, the odds of anemia among those participants who were unable to read and write were 4 times higher as compared to odds of anemia among college and above (AOR=4.33, 95% CI: 1.56, 11.96). The odds of anemia among participants who were taking AZT containing regimen were 2.9 times higher as compared to not taking AZT containing regimen (AOR=3.0, 95% CI: 1.73, 5.36). The odds of the likelihood of anemia among those participants with CD4 count less than 200 cells/mm3 were 3.6 times higher as compared to participants with CD4 count >200 cells/mm3 (AOR=3.6, 95% CI: 1.63, 8.09). The odds of anemia among participants having a history of opportunistic infection were 4.3 times higher as compared to odds of those without history of opportunistic infection (AOR=4.3, 95% CI: 2.43, 7.68) (Table 5).