Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: July | Volume: 8 | Issue: 7 | Pages: 234-244
Unmet HIV/AIDS Services Needs amongst Adolescent and Children in Kenya
Maureen Atieno Adoyo1, George Ochieng Otieno2, Charles Omondi Oyaya3
1Postgraduate Student, 2Lecturer,
Kenyatta University Nairobi Kenya
3Executive Director, International Development Institute- Africa (IDIA), Nairobi, Kenya
Corresponding Author: Maureen Atieno Adoyo
ABSTRACT
World Health Organization advocates for provision of comprehensive HIV/AIDS service package in uninterrupted manner according to client needs overtime including their network. High Income Countries recognizes that integration is the most logical way to organize health care services while Low Income Countries still experience delays in access to care. Therefore, this study aimed to establish the implementation status of services integration in different facilities of Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were used. A total of 597 adults and 212 children were respondents either directly or indirectly after the consenting and assenting process. A Semi structured, interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS Ver. 21 software used to generate descriptive statistics and measure of correlation coefficient used to test relationships between variables. Results indicated that majority of the facilities had more than one services with most scoring above 60 percent in utilization of the available services, hard to reach are as lagged in healthcare services utilization, integration status varied across facilities and had significant influence on quality of HIV/AIDs services at 95% C.I.;b 0.22; p-value 0.00. The study concluded that HIV cases were high among adolescents and young adults as reflected by high response rate while children had low representation due to social orientation and services organization at point of care. Therefore, the study recommends restructuring and scaling up of investments on Youth Friendly Services at the same time considering reinvention in strategies for pediatric ART programming.
Key words: HIV/AIDS, Integration, Healthcare, Adolescent, Children, Kenya.