Food Insecurity and Associated Factors Among Adult HIV Patients on Anti-Retroviral Therapy in Dessie Referral Hospital, South Wollo Zone, North Central Ethiopia

Abstract Background Food insecurity has a paramount negative impact on the overall nutritional and health status of people living with the human immune deficiency virus, hence leading to opportunistic infections, rapid disease progression, hospitalizations, poor treatment outcomes, and mortality. Both are intertwined and worsen one another in a vicious cycle through a mixture of nutritional, mental health, and behavioral pathways that heighten vulnerability to, and worsen the severity of, each condition. Nevertheless, little is known about the magnitude of food insecurity and associated factors among adults on antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa countries including the current study area. Objectives To assess the magnitude of food insecurity and associated factors among Adults on Antiretroviral Treatment in Dessie referral hospital South Wollo Zone, Northcentral Ethiopia Methods and Materials: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 420 randomly selected adults living with HIV/AIDS receiving ART in Dessie referral hospital. Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to STATA version 16.0 for cleaning and analysis. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with the outcome variable. Odds ratio along with 95% confidence interval was estimated to measure the strength of the association and the level of statistical significance was declared at a p-value less than 0.05 Results The magnitude of food insecurity among adults on ART was 62.4% (95% CI: 57.6, 66.8]. CD4 count <350 [AOR=3.51, 95% CI: 1.88, 6.52], average monthly household income ≤ 40 USD [AOR= 2.34, 95% CI: 1.42, 3.84], WHO clinical stage III&IV [AOR=2.85, 95% CI: 1.61, 5.04], not getting any support [AOR= 3.04, 95% CI: 1.45, 6.38] were factors significantly associated with food insecurity. Conclusion Around two-thirds of the adult people living with HIV on ART at Dessie referral Hospital were experiencing food insecurity. Thus, social protection interventions targeting patients with CD4 <350, income less than 40 USD/month, WHO clinical stage III &IV, and those patients with no support are crucial interventions for food security.