Magnitude and factors associated with lost to follow-up among women under option B+ PMTCT program at East Wollega public health facilities, western Ethiopia

An initiation of lifelong antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and lactating women living with Human immune virus (HIV) without eligibility criteria is Option B+ Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT). However, loss to follow-up from the PMTCT creates a great obstacle for the success of this program. To assess the magnitude and factors associated with lost to follow up among women under option B+ PMTCT program at East Wollega public health facilities, western Ethiopia. Hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 330 women enrolled in the Option B+ PMTCT from June 12, 2013 – December 1, 2018. The analysis was performed using STATA version 14 and logistic regression model was fitted to identify the factors associated with loss to follow-up. The magnitude of lost to follow up from Option B+ PMTCT program was 15.4% (95% CI; 11.9–19.7). Lack of formal education (AOR = 3.70, 95% CI; 1.46, 9.36), rural residence (AOR = 2.75, 95% CI; 1.33, 5.68), fail to disclose HIV status (AOR = 3.75, 95% CI; 1.73, 7.41), previous history of HIV (AOR = 3.33, 95% CI; 1.68, 7.47) and poor/fair antiretroviral treatment adherence (AOR = 3.01, 95% CI; 1.10, 8.70) were found to be significantly associated with loss to follow-up. The magnitude of loss to follow-up was comparable with the previous studies and the highest number of loss to follow-up happened during postpartum. Thus, we recommend the health institutions and other stakeholders to promote institutional delivery and providing health education on the importance of disclosing HIV status.