Knowledge of Healthcare Providers in Secondary Health Care Facilities towards Exclusive Breastfeeding among HIV Positive Mothers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Exclusive Breastfeeding for 6 months by HIV infected mothers has been recommended by the Nigeria National guidelines on Preventing Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. This study was designed to assess the knowledge of Health Care Providers in secondary healthcare facilities towards exclusive breastfeeding among HIV positive mothers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A self-administered questionnaire was used to elicit data from the respondents. Approval to carry out the study at the health facilities was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Health, Uyo. A purposive sampling technique was used to select three secondary health facilities (one per senatorial district), while proportionally stratified sampling technique was used to select 278 healthcare providers. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 and presented using inferential and non-inferential statistical method. Statistical significance was established at p<0.05 level. The findings revealed that 191(68.7%) of the respondents had good knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding among HIV positive mothers. The odd ratio findings of nurses’ response (OR = 4.20, C.I = 1.781-9.889, p = 0.001, p<0.05) were significantly higher than the reference group (the CHEW/CHO cadre). There was also a significant association between years of experience and knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding among the respondents ( = 12.78, p = 0.005, p < 0.05). The findings reveal that nurses have higher knowledge and are in constant relationship with the women. However, there is still a gap in encouraging HIV positive mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding.