Maternal Health Care Utilization and Child Health Outcomes among HIV-Positive Adolescent Girls in Kenya

Francis Obare, Population Council
Harriet Birungi, Population Council
Anke van der Kwaak, Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands
Jane Harriet Namwebya, Family Health International (FHI), Kenya

This paper uses pregnancy history data collected among HIV-positive adolescent girls who were receiving services from various HIV/AIDS programs in four regions of Kenya. It involves estimation of multilevel models to explore the determinants of maternal health care utilization and child health outcomes among the adolescents, and to compare selected outcomes with those of adolescents from the general population. Among HIV-positive adolescent girls, the results show significant variations in the use of maternal health services by service type, pregnancy outcome, region, pregnancy or birth order, and paternity status. Besides, infants whose HIV status was not known were significantly less likely to be alive. Compared to those from the general population, HIV-positive adolescent mothers were significantly more likely to use maternal health services although their children were significantly less likely to survive. These findings have important implications for the provision of maternal and child health services to HIV-positive adolescent mothers.