Maternal HIV status is associated with food insecurity at 12 months post‐partum in Ghana

Food insecurity is prevalent in HIV affected communities in Sub‐Saharan Africa. We examined household food insecurity status at 12 months post‐partum among women from Ghana's Eastern region who were diagnosed prenatally as HIV‐positive (HIV‐P; n=102), HIV‐negative (HIV‐N; n=150) or of unknown HIV status (HIV‐U; n=106).Women responded to a modified version of the US Household Food Security survey module. The reference time period was changed to reflect only the month preceding the survey. This analysis used a summative score based on 8 adult‐related questions (Cronbach's alpha=0.92). Households were classified as food secure (score=0), experiencing mild food insecurity (FI) (score =1‐3), moderate FI (score=4‐6), or severe FI (score =7‐8). The proportion of households experiencing severe adult FI was 8.8% among HIV‐P and HIV‐U women and 1.3% among HIV‐N women (p<0.05), The corresponding values for moderate adult FI were 14.5%, 15.7%, and 10.7%, respectively (p<0.05). Findings suggest that special attention is needed regarding the additional food security needs of HIV‐affected households. Funded by NIH grant HD43620.