Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV-infected Patients in UBTH, Benin City, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/tnhj.v14i4.178Keywords:
Adherence, Antiretroviral therapy, Benin City, NigeriaAbstract
Background: Evidence from, clinical studies has shown that for most HIV positive patients near perfect adherence (> 95%) are required for virological suppression and clinical success. This degree of adherence is far greater than that commonly associated with other chronic diseases and this is quite difficult for most patients to maintain over the course of a lifelong illness. The study was therefore carried out to determine the level of adherence to antiretroviral therapy and to identify predictors of adherence and non- adherence.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized for the study and it was carried out over a period of four months (Oct 2007 to Feb 2008). Systematic sampling was used to select 273 HIV positive patients receiving treatment at PEPFAR clinic, UBTH, Benin City. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Adherence was assessed using patients self-report on the percentage of prescribed doses taken within a one month period. Adherence score of95% was taken as the cut-off point. Data analysis was by SPSS version 15.0, and the level of significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: The level of adherence to antiretroviral chemotherapy was 241(88.3%). The most common reason for non-adherence to chemotherapy was being busy 38(30.4%) and forgetfulness 33(26.4%), whereas adherence was associated with the duration of treatment.
Conclusion: Adherence level in the study was 88.3%, whereas the optimal adherence required to achieve clinical success is > 95%. This adherence gap remains a source of concern, therefore adherence counseling is strongly recommended.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 The Nigerian Health Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.
