European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ASSESSMENT OF LEVEL OF ADHERENCE TO ANTI RETROVIRAL THERAPY AMONG ADULT HIV INFECTED PATIENTS IN MEKELLE HOSPITAL, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA.

Gebremedhin Gebreegziabiher* and Haftay Gebremedhin

ABSTRACT

Background: HIV/AIDS is one of the most destructive epidemics the world has ever witnessed. Non-adherence to the proposed antiretroviral regimen is considered to be one of the greatest dangers to the response to treatment on an individual level and the dissemination of resistant viruses on the community level. However a significant proportion of HIV-infected patients do not reach high levels of adherence. The objective of this study is to assess the Level of adherence and associated factors among HIV/AIDS patients receiving HAART in Mekelle Hospital, Northern Ethiopia. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out from January 1, 2013 to July30, 2013 among 382 adult PLWHA (>=18 years) attending ART clinic at Mekelle Hospital. Data was collected by a combination of structured questionnaire and document review. The data was entered and cleaned using Epi-Info; transported to SPSS 16.0 version for final analysis. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with adherence. Results: The rate of self reported adherence in the study based on the Schedule, indicator of the dose and time measurement 7 days preceding data collection was (78.3%). Females were more adhered than males (185(87.7%). Alcohol users have poor adherence than non alcohol users with 70.5% and 82.2% level of adherence respectively. Sex and educational status of the study participants were significantly associated with level of adherence with AOR (95% CI) of 3.81(2.18, 6.69) and 2.60(1.43, 4.71) respectively. Conclusion: The level adherence (78.3%) is still very low considering the WHO recommendation of 95%. Sex and educational status of the study participants were significantly associated with level of adherence. More focus should be given to males and individuals with low educational status to improve level of adherence and to assure the efficacy of HAART in prolonging the life of PLWHA.

Keywords: Adherence, PLWHA, Mekelle Hospital, HIV/AIDS.