Household Water Treatment Practice and Associated Factors Among People Living with HIV, Bahir Dar City Administration, Northwest Ethiopia

Introduction: PLHIV have substantially greater need for access to safe water, for bathing and washing soiled clothing and linen; safe drinking water is necessary for taking medicines. Therefore household water treatment is one of inexpensive and effective technology to make water safe. However the information of household water treatment practices and associated factors on these groups were inadequate. Objective: the: t aim of the study was to assess household water treatment practice and associated factors among PLHIV who are member of the three associations in Bahir Dar city administration, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A Community based cross-sectional study was done among PLHIV from April-May 2013. A Simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Pre-tested and structured questionnaire, observation checks list and residual chlorine test was used to collect the data. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to determine the separate and confounding effect for variables with p-value <0.2 in binary analysis. Result: of the total respondents 76.3% reported that they treated their drinking water at home. But only 11% of respondents treated water at home within 24 hours of this study. The main reasons for not treating water at home were psycho-social problem 29 (53.7%), unavailability of treatment methods 17 (31.5%), and lack of knowledge how to use treatment methods 8 (14.8%). Occupational status of the respondents (AOR=2.6; 95% CI 0.162-0.903), duration of water storing time (AOR=2.9; 95% CI 1.471-5.692), and use of separate container for water storing (AOR=3.1; 1.008-9.223) were significantly associated variables with household water treatment practice. Conclusion: Household water treatment practices among people living with HIV were found low. Therefore the PLHIV needs special attention to improve household water treatment practice. fee free water treatment methods availability, promotion of household water treatment practice and participate in income generating activities are supreme important