. Lalit Prashant Meena; . Shant Kumar Pandey; . Madhukar Rai; . Anju Bharti; . Jaya Chakravarty; . Shyam Sundar
Volume 4, Issue 2 , May 2014, , Pages 1-4
Abstract
Background: Majority of HIV/AIDS patients who are on Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy(HAART), are not aware about drug adherence and its importance which is the most importantfactor ...
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Background: Majority of HIV/AIDS patients who are on Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy(HAART), are not aware about drug adherence and its importance which is the most importantfactor for drug adherence. Objectives: To study the level of drug adherence in patients accessingantiretroviral therapy (ART) through the National program and factor influencing drug adherence.Materials and Methods: In present study, we enrolled 102 newly diagnosed patients, amongthem in 79 patients, ART was started. To study the drug adherence a pretested, semistructuredquestionnaire was formed and patients were followed up for 6 months of the study. Pretest andposttest counseling was done to all such patients. Results: A total of 28 patients missed thedose in 1st follow-up, nine patients missed in 2nd follow-up, eight patients missed in 3rd follow-up.Three patients lost follow-up in 2nd follow-up, three patients further lost follow-up in 3rd follow-up.Running out of pills (40.0%), side effect (15.5%), and family problem (13.3%), poor transportfacility for taking drug (8.9%) and forgetfulness (11.1%) are five major causes related to missdose. In females patients, drug adherence (69%) was initially less than male patients (76%) butlatter on female patients (96.3%) had better adherence than males (95.2%). Conclusion: Thisstudy suggest that drug adherence can be increased by proper counseling and close monitoringof the patients which may have a great role in preventing the drug resistance and ART response.