Socioeconomic and sociodemographic differentials in pregnant women’s knowledge on prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Kenya: A cross-sectional study from 2008-09 KDHS

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a global public health issue. One way of transmission is through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). There are ways to prevent this and one option is to give the mother special drugs during pregnancy, delivery or afterwards. Socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors can potentially affect the knowledge women have about prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Objective: The aim of this secondary analysis was to explore which socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors are associated with pregnant women’s knowledge about PMTCT. Methods: Secondary data obtained from Kenyan Demographic and Health Surveys from 2008-09 were used, n=524. Variables investigated were marital status, education level, HIV status, religion, type of residence, occupation and wealth quintile and their association to the outcome, knowledge about prevention of mother-to-child transmission. They were tested by means of logistic regression analysis. Results: Results showed that higher level of education and belonging to a higher level of wealth quintile were significantly associated with having knowledge about PMTCT. All categories for education showed a significant difference in the adjusted model I and for wealth quintile, only richer and richest category showed a significant difference, also in the adjusted model I. Over all, 74% did have knowledge about PMTCT. Conclusion: There are socioeconomic differentials in knowledge about PMTCT. Knowing which women have the least knowledge about PMTCT makes it is easier to know which women to target to be able to increase the knowledge among the population with high prevalence of HIV in low- and middle income countries.