Factors Influencing Human Immune Virus Status Disclosure Among Patients Attending Comprehensive Care Clinic At Coast General Hospital, Mombasa County

Purpose: The study sought to determine the prevalence and factors influencing HIV disclosure among clients attending comprehensive care centre at Coast General Hospital, Mombasa County. Methodology: A cross sectional research design was used. The study was conducted at Coast General Hospital involving 384 patients systematically randomly selected for purposes of data collection. The data was collected through semi structured questionnaires self-administered by the researcher. The collected data was cleaned, coded, entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics, binary and logistic regression analysis with 95% confidence interval was carried out and p value less than 0.005 used to determine the significant association. Results: The results indicated that there was a significant association between being a male and %). The Bivariate results indicated that education and occupation were statistically significant in influencing HIV status disclosure, this is well reinforced by the logistic regression which shows a similar trend of education and occupation as determinants of HIV status disclosure in addition to counseling (AOR, . 0.3)95% CI: 0.1, 0.8). The results also showed that there is no association between physical violence and HIV status disclosure. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: This study identified stigma and discrimination among others such as fear of abandonment, fear of losing social support, and embarrassment to the family as a hindrance to HIV sero positive disclosure among PLWHA. Therefore, focus should be directed to community based education and awareness on importance of disclosure so as to reduce the perceived consequences of disclosure such as stigma and discrimination.