Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy and Associated Factors among Patients Living with HIV/AIDS at Dil Chora Referral Hospital in Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Antiretroviral therapy has transformed the HIV infection into a chronic manageably disease. Optimal adherence• (95%) is required to achieving treatment success; however, sti-ll non adherence remains major problem among patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). The aim of this study was to determine adherences rate and evaluate factors affecting adherence amongpatients on ART in DilChora Referral HospitaAl.mix of quantitative & qualitative method was use.dFor quantitative method a total of 97 people living with HIV/AIDS on ART were included in the cross sectional survey. All patients who came to the hodsupriintagl study period were considered based on convenient sampling techniqu-Seq. uCahrei test is used to examine the association of adherence with associated factors. Both data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 20. For the qualitative studFyG fDiv ewas conducted with 25 ARV users, and 18 peer educators. And key informant interview with two health workers.The qualitative data was transcribed & categorized by main theme manually & presented in narrative form to supplement the quantitative fins.dOinfg 97 respondents, 60 (61.9%) were females and 37 (38.1%) were males8 a7n (d89.7%) had 100% adherences, 6 (6.2%) had 95-100% and the rest, 4 (4.1%) had <95% adherences with overall adherence rate of 95.9% for last month prior to the study perioTdh.emain reasons for skipping the doses were 4 (4.1%) forgetfulness, 3 (3%.1) being away from homet hoer reasons included sleeping and being busy with other thin.g Lsiving with others (P=0.001), being married (P=0.000), family disclosure (P=0.002) and using mmoery aids (P=0.000) were significantly associated with adherence to ART.The self-reported adherence rate to ART (95.9%) was found to be relatively higher which needs inclusion of other methods to ensure consistency of this value. Forgetfulness, being awafyrom home and being busy with other things were the foremost reasons for non -adherence. The patients should be encouraged to maintain this high level of adherence.