Abstract:
Introduction: Patient retention on ART care is directly correlated with positive health outcomes
for both individual patient and public health. In Hadiya zone different strategies are tried to
improve retention on ART care. But status of retention on ART care and affecting factors of
retention are not studied in the zone.
Objective: To assess status of retention on ART care and affecting factors among
adult anti-retroviral treatment (ART) patients in public health facility of Hadiya
zone, Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Hadiya zone using secondary data. Total
sample size of 311 was proportionally allocated to 8 health facilities having more than20 alive
ART cases. Participants were selected by systematic sampling method. We used adapted check
list, and descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were employed to identify factors
associated with retention on ART care. Odds ratio and 95% CI was used to declare significantly
associated factor with retention on ART care.
Result: The over all retention on ART care was 75.7%. Being female, secondary or above
educational status, disclosure of self HIV/AIDS status to others, having les addiction level
in alcohol/tobacco and history of drug regimen change have significant positive relation
with retention on ART care in multivariate analysis at p< 0.05. Also for a unit increase in
duration of month on ART, log odds of retention on ART care decreases by 0.80 times with
95% CI; (0.67, 0.96) and p<0.05.
Conclusion: - This study has identified comparatively lower level of retention on ART care
from finding of other Ethiopian and African ART Clinics. Ongoing counseling on
importance of retention on care, disclosure of self sero-positivity status to family member,
reducing the abuse of alcohol/tobacco is recommended.
