Assessing adherence of adult people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome to antiretroviral therapy at Kaffa,Ethiopia

Abstract

The scale-up of antiretroviral treatment is among the greatest successes of the global Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes response to date and it is on a Fast-path- approach. To contribute to the global and local target of human immune virus-acquire immune deficiency syndrome response as well as to obtain full benefits of antiretroviral therapy medication, strong adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy is important. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the adherence of Adult people living with human immune virus–acquired immune deficiency syndrome to antiretroviral therapy at GebretsadikShawoGeneralHospital, Bonga, Kaffa, south west Ethiopia. An Institutional basedcross sectional study was conducted. Data werecollectedusingpre-structured questionnaires and structured and unstructured interviews, ferquency,percent and chi-squertest, Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were performed to examine the influences of different variables on adherence and to control potential confounders.Out of 531 patients participated in the study, 368(69.3%) were females and 163(30.7%) were males. Among targeted population 69.9% of them had good dose adherence and the remaining 30.1% of them were poor adherent to their antiretroviral therapy drugs. Among the participants socio-demographic features, Muslim religion followers had poor medication adherence (adjusted odd ratio =13.490, Confidence interval =1.157-157.235, P=0.038). Patients that have poor perception toward effectiveness of the HAART had poor medication adherence (adjusted odd ratio=0.103, Confidence interval =0.027-0.397, P=0.001). Those without co-infection or co-morbidity with other infection, (adjusted odd ratio =11.324, Confidence interval =1.950-65.756, P=0.007), and taking co-current medication had poor medication adherence (adjusted odd ratio=6.056, Confidence interval =1.338-27.415, P=0.019)independentlywerepredictedfor poor medication adherence. In general, the level of adherence to antiretroviral therapy was relatively higher when compared to other studies done in Ethiopia, but it is below the recommended level. Interventional strategies should be designed to enhance patients’ awareness regarding ways to improve adherence level, on adverse effects on adherence, and predictor factors of poor medication adherence.