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Barriers, Motivations to Utilization of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV among Women Attending Antenatal Clinic at a Teaching Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria - Introduction: Effective utilization of prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) services is key to significantly reducing the rate of vertical transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study assessed the knowledge, attitude of women and barriers and motivations to uptake of (PMTCT) services by women attending the antenatal clinic of University of Abuja Teaching Hospital. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study in which 216 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of a tertiary institution were selected using systematic sampling technique and interviewed using self-administered semi-structured questionnaires. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for data analysis. Chi square test was used for categorical variables, while student t-test was used for quantitative data, and p-values of Results: A total of 92 participants (42.6%) had good knowledge of PMTCT while 124 (57.4%) had poor knowledge. About 202 (93.5%) had a positive attitude towards PMTCT interventions. The strongest barrier to uptake of PMTCT services was poor knowledge of HIV transmission (79.2%) followed by stigma (79.2%). The desire to protect the baby was the greatest motivation 212 (98.1%), for acceptance of PMTCT services, followed by increased awareness about HIV infection with (204 (94.4%). Conclusion: Although knowledge levels were generally low, the overall attitude of the women was strongly positive. For effective scale up of PMTCT services in this setting, dissemination of information on PMTCT that is scientifically sound and culturally acceptable is encouraged. The barriers to the uptake of PMTCT services should be eliminated while motivations should be strengthened. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Barriers, Motivations, Utilization, HIV/AIDS, Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission.
Joseph et al. (Thu,) studied this question.