Voluntary HIV Status Disclosure and Family Support Among Patients Attending Anti-Retroviral Therapy Clinics in Ogbomoso, South West, Nigeria

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a disease of significant public health im-portance. Disclosure of HIV sero status remains a significant problem among people living with the disease as it impacts their family support. This study set out to determine the relationship between voluntary HIV status dis-closure and family support among patients attending Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Clinics in Ogbomoso, South West Nigeria. Methods: The study was a hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study among retroviral-positive adults’ respondents attending ART clinics of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital (LTH), Ogbomoso, Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ogbomoso, and State Hospital, Sunsun, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Proportion-al allocation determined the number of respondents recruited from each clinic. A simple random sampling tech-nique was used to select patients for the study. Family support of respondents was assessed using the Perceived Social Support Family Scale. The association between independent and dependent variables was assessed using the Chi-square test. Results: Data from the 305 respondents who completed the study were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 21). A total of 96.4% of respondents in the study disclosed their HIV status to a third party. The majority preferred to disclose to their family members. P-values of <0.05 were considered to be sta-tistically significant. There was an association between HIV status disclosure and family support and the associ-ation was statistically significant (p-value <0.01). Conclusion: HIV status disclosure has a significant relationship with Family Support.