Prevalence of, and barriers to the disclosure of HIV status to infected children and adolescents in a district of Ghana

Table 3 The barriers to disclosure of HIV status to infected children

Variables	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Opinion about telling a child his/her HIV status	(n = 118)
− Positive	87	77.7
− Not sure	3	2.5
− Negative	27	22.9
Preferred age of disclosure
− 6–9	5	4.2
–10–13	33	28.0
− 14–17	51	43.2
− 18–19	29	24.6
Mean (SD); min/max	14.9 (3.01) 6/19
Face barrier in telling the child his/her HIV status
− Yes	93	79.1
− No	25	20.9
Barriers to the disclosure of status to child (n = 105)	6	9.2
− Fear of psychologically harm to child	44	67.7
− Child may be too young to understand	12	18.5
− Child will not be able to keep the diagnosis	4	4.6
− Other