Nutritional Status and Associated Factors Among Adult HIV/AIDS Patients Receiving ART in Dilla University Referral Hospital, Dilla, Southern Ethiopia

Without appropriate intervention, HIV/AIDS and Malnutrition are interconnected and can worsen health situation of individuals in a vicious cycle. In Sub Saharan African countries including Ethiopia, the problem of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition are among the top development concerns. However, little have been studied about nutritional status of HIV/AIDS patients receiving ART drugs. Thus, in this study we did assess nutritional status of adults living with HIV/AIDS receiving ART in Dilla University Referral Hospital, Gedio zone, Southern Ethiopia. Institutional-based cross-sectional study was used from March to May 2015 on 389 PLWHA adults taking ART drug at the hospital. Study participants were randomly selected among all adult ART clients at the Hospital. Data collection was done using: face-to-face interview using structured and pretested questionnaire, secondary data from the record in the hospital and Anthropometric measurement. Data analysis was done using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. There was 100% response rate and majority (about 60%) of the study participants were female where as 25% of them had chronic energy deficiency with (BMI<18.5kg/m²). Among key factors that predict nutritional status of the study participants were: Clinical stage of HVI/AIDS infection, wealth status, presence of care giver, dietary diversity, food security status and CD4 cell count were significantly associated with under nutrition. In addition to clinical factors, food insecurity and low dietary diversity status were found as important risk factor associated with malnutrition. We concluded that, since only ART can’t solve problem of malnutrition, attention needs to be given to improve income, food security, feeding habits and dietary diversity of PLWHA.