The Effect of Counseling for Disclosing HIV Test Results in Discordant Couples on the Success of Disclosing the Test Result and Its Associated Factors at the Antenatal Care Department of the Bamrasnaradura Institute

Abstract

This research was a descriptive retrospective study aimed at examining the effect of directive counseling for pregnant women who had different HIV test results from their partners and did not disclose them to the partner. The participants were thirty-six pregnant women from the antenatal care department at the Bamrasnaradura Institute. Research instrument tools were the demographic data retrieved from the medical records, the counselling record forms, and the summary of counseling services. The content validity of the three forms ranged from .06-1, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients showed an acceptable reliability of 0.8. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and testing the factors related to the success of disclosing HIV test results in discordant couples was done with Chi-square tests.

Results: Most of the 36 participants were female, were HIV infected, had been with their partner between 1-3 years, and had known their test results for less than a year. After the directive counseling program, 30 participants disclosed their test results to their partner, while six chose not to disclose them. The study found that gender, age, type of clients, duration of living together, and duration of knowing their test result were statistically significantly associated with the success of disclosing at p<.05. Therefore, providing counseling services before and after the blood test for both the pregnant women and their partners from the time they receive the test results is essential. As a result, it would help increase the accessibility to medical services needed and also help prevent HIV transmission to their partners and babies.