Level of Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy and Its Determinants among People Living With HIV/AIDS Accessing Services at Tertiary Hospital -ART Centre

摘要

"Introduction: There has been a dramatic reduction in Human Im-munodeficiency Virus related mor-bidity and mortality due to Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART). Adher-ence to the Highly Active Antiretro-viral Therapy regimen is critical for success of Antiretroviral Therapy. Methodology: A cross-sectional de-scriptive study was conducted at Anti Retroviral Therapy centre at-tached to tertiary care hospital. Sample size of 110 was derived & those satisfying inclusion criteria were interviewed using semi- struc-tured questionnaire. Results: 54.5% of respondents were males. More than half of them were in age group of 40-59 years. 27.2% travelled more than 100 Kms to ac-cess the service. It was observed that 94.5%, 84.5%, 83.6% & 89.1% re-ported 95% adherence in previous 4 days, one week, 1 month & 3 months respectively. Statistically significant association was ob-served between the distance trav-elled for availing Anti Retroviral Therapy services and the level of adherence. Conclusion: A good level of adher-ence was observed which could be further improved by counseling and additional support. Distance trav-elled was the significant barrier in accessing the services which can be overcome by making services decen-tralized and by addressing the stigma for utilizing services in near-by centres.