Victo Kyobutungi¹*, Anthony Ssebagereka¹, Christine T Begumisa¹, Christine Muhumuza¹ and Joseph KB Matovu²

¹Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, P.O Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda
²Department of Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, P.O Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda

*Corresponding Author: Victo Kyobutungi, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, P.O Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda.

Received: December 22, 2021; Published: February 25, 2022

Abstract

Background: HIV counselling is increasingly available in public health facilities in Uganda. Counselling is an entry point into care, treatment and support services of many HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Quality of HCT services have significant role on prognosis of HIV patients. This study assessed the quality of HIV counselling services offered in public health facilities in Kampala by reviewing adherence to the HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) policy guidelines, content of counselling information offered to clients and health facility amenities.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2016 utilizing quantitative methods of data collection. Quality of HIV counseling was defined in accordance with adherence to the HCT guidelines, offering ‘good’ content of counselling information and health facilities having adequate amenities. We used principal component analysis to obtain and reveal current composite scores of the variables. Data were summarized into frequencies and proportions using STATA, version 13.0. Scores below 70% were considered as ‘poor’ quality.

Results: In this study, 74 health workers offering HIV counselling services at five public health facilities were interviewed. The study revealed that quality of HIV counselling at the five public health facilities was ‘poor' as 74% of the health workers offered ‘poor’ quality HIV counselling and only one out of five health facilities was found to have adequate amenities. Majority (74.3%) of the health workers were found not to adhere to HCT guidelines. In addition, 67.6% of the health workers offered ‘poor’ content of counseling information.

Conclusion: Overall quality of HIV counselling was found to be poor. Improvements should be focused on mentorship programs for all health workers involved in HIV counselling. Provision of modest space for counselling is also required so as to ensure privacy during counselling sessions.

Keywords: HCT: HIV Counselling and Testing; PCA: Principal Component Analysis

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Citation

Citation: Victo Kyobutungi., et al. “Quality of HIV Counselling Services Offered in Public Health Facilities in Kampala, Uganda". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 6.3 (2022): 123-131.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Victo Kyobutungi., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.