Prevalence and Associated Factors of Sexually Transmitted Infections Based on the Syndromic Approach among HIV Patients in ART Clinic; Ayder Referral Hospital, Northern Ethiopia

Background: Sexually transmitted Infections represent a large burden of disease worldwide with an annual incidence of about 333 million cases. In Ethiopia, studies on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) among HIV patients are very few; therefore, conducting research on STIs in general and among HIV patients in particular is an important input to design policy and strategy aimed at preventing and controlling the infections. Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of sexually transmitted infections among HIV patients in ART clinic; Ayder referral hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study design was conducted among 353 HIV patients in Ayder hospital, ART clinic from July to September 2014. A systematic random sampling technique was used to identify study subjects. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and entered into and analyzed using SPSS 20 for windows. Descriptive analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of STIs and selected characteristics of patients. The effects of predictors on having STIs were analyzed using logistic regression and their effects were depicted using OR adjusted for confounding. P-value less than 0.05 were considered as statistical significant for all tests. Result;: Among total respondents; 150 (42.5%) were male and 203 (57.5%) female HIV patients .The prevalence of sexually transmitted infections based on the syndromic approach was 8.5% with specific prevalence of (4.6%) urethral discharge syndrome,(2.8%) genital ulcer syndrome, none of them scrotal swelling syndrome, (2.5%) lower abdominal pain syndrome,(0.3%)inguinal bubo and (5.5%) had vaginal discharge syndrome. 8 patients (26.7%) had recurrent disease and 28 patients (93.3%) treated without their partners. After multivariable logistic regression analysis, age (AOR=11.3 (95%CI: 1.1-116.5), marital status (AOR=0.031 (95%CI: 0.001-0.93) and having new sexual partner within the last three months (AOR=152.7 (95%CI: 3.7-6274) were significantly associated with STI syndromes p-value<0.05. Conclusion and recommendations: The prevalence of sexually transmitted infections based on the syndromic approach among HIV patients was 8.5% and the factors associated with STIs among HIV patients were: age, marital status and having new sexual partner within the last three months. Moreover, further studies to explore the predictor variables are highly recommended.