Predictors of Art Adherence among People Living with Human Immune Virus Attending Treatment at Hospitals in West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2015

Abstract

Back ground:  Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is a treatment for people living with HIV to help them to attain a maximal and durable suppression of the viral replication and prevention of the resistance. ARV regimens require adherence rate of at least 95.0% to achieve undetectable viral load, reduce the risk of drug-resistant HIV development and minimize recurrence of symptoms of AIDS. This study is aimed improve the information gap regarding adherence level and factors predicting the adherence of people to ART attending clinics of hospitals in west shoa zone of Oromia regional state, Ethiopia.Objectives: This is designed to identify predictors of ART adherence among people living with HIV and following ART treatment at hospitals in West Shewa Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia.Methodology:  data for the study is conducted from January to March 2015. at public hospitals found in West Shewa Zone of Oromia Region. A cross sectional study design that includes quantitative and qualitative study type was employed. Participants were selected by computer generated simple random sampling method. The collected data was cleansed, edited, coded, entered to SPSS version 16.0 window and analyzed.  Multiple logistic regressions model is used to identify the predicting factors of ART adherence. Result: A total of 326 people living with HIV/AIDS were participated in the study. From the participated clients, 66.2% of them achieved the recommended high level adherence. Being a jobless (has no job) (AOR= 0.005, 95% CI= 0.035-0.559), being on ART for 12-24 months (AOR= 8.9, 95% CI=2.816-28.0556), good knowledge of the importance of ART drug (AOR= 0.039, 95% CI=0.019-0.079) and being bored with drug consumption sometimes only (AOR=2.718, 95% CI=1.077-6.860) are factors significantly independently predicting ART adherence among people living with human immune virus. Traveling distance, felt depressed at dosing time, being busy with other work and long distance to facility were among the participants reason for not taking doses but these are not significantly associated with the adherence rate. Conclusion and Recommendation: From this study it was seen that ART adherence is not satisfactory to achieve the intended treatment outcome. Occupational status, duration of ART usage, knowledge of ART benefit and being bored with drug consumption are the statically significant predictors of ART adherence. So that ART treatment adherence enhancing program should target the client’s knowledge of the importance of the drugs, personal behaviors and work condition of the community.

Keywords: ART, PLHIV, drug adherence.