Socio-demographic Characteristics of a Cohort of HIV Positive Nigerian Children

Objective: To describe the socio-demographic characteristics of and identify risk factors in HIV positive paediatric patients presenting at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Methods: A descriptive questionnaire based cross-sectional study to assess socio-demographic characteristics of patients presenting to the Paediatric HIV clinic of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital over a 12 month period. The data were analyzed using the Epi-Info 2002 statistical software for windows. Results: Majority of parents had below tertiary level of education; mothers, 72.7 % and fathers, 69.1 %. Seventy percent of the mothers were HIV positive thus mother to child transmission seems to be the most prevalent risk factor. Majority of the children, 68.1% were delivered at private hospitals and 78.2% through normal vagina delivery. History of previous hospitalizations reported in 58.2% with previous blood transfusion in 30.9%. Over one-third of the children, 40.0% weighed between 2.5 and 2.9kg at birth. Conclusions: The literacy level, poor socioeconomic background and parental HIV status were major contributory factors in the children studied. Targeted interventions on barriers to care and knowledge of HIV infection should be an integral part of the HIV prevention program.